Popular Bollywood gossip show, Koffee with Karan, aired its third episode this Thursday on Disney+Hotstar. After the bomb debut with Ranveer and Alia and the chatty second episode with Bollywood divas Jhanvi and Sara, it was time for South and North cinema to come together on the red couch. And who better to represent than mega stars Samantha Prabhu and Akshay Kumar.
Their colourful attires looked gleaming on the cameras when they sat on the sofa. Samantha wore hot pink pants and a bright red cutout top. The colour block looks were a mood. Akshay showed up in a blue suit with his casual statement shoes.
Samantha called Akshay a one-person industry. This episode was a laughter scream, from Samantha's candid review of Karan's idea of love has destroyed marriages to Akshay's sharp retort to the Chris Rock and Will Smith incident. The two actors vividly discussed their pieces of knowledge in the film industry and shared some details about their personal lives.
Despite being a Koffee debutante, Samantha was on fire. Sam indulged in past wounds but not in a damsel in distress way. Samantha opened up about her divorce from Naga Chaitanya. When Karan Johar said, "You were the first when you and your husband decided to part ways" (Saying that Samantha was the first to come out about her marital issues on social media). Sam immediately corrected him- 'EX-HUSBAND'. She also said, "If you put us both in the same room (Chaitanya), you must conceal any sharp objects." She further clarified that the situation between the two is currently tense, but maybe in the future things will get better.
We know how Karan johar and gossip go hand in hand. When Karan said he didn't want to intrude on Samantha's personal life, the latter joked that Karan had asked her all the details of her divorce from Naga Chaitanya off camera. Akshay and Samantha called him out and gave the show a new title, ‘Koffee with Encroachment Karan’.
Samantha also shared the bizarre rumour of her demanded Rs 250 crore in alimony. She joked that she expected IT officials to raid her home after the alimony rumours surfaced.
Again just like every other episode, Karan needs to get over Nepotism. He started by using the N-word, which in this context refers to Nepotism, and Johar claims to have agreed to be its leading proponent. Why does Karan have to bring the Nepo term in every episode? In the episode, Karan talked about how Nepotism is more evident in the Tollywood industry than in Bollywood. It is most likely an all-boys group. Samantha dodged the question gracefully and answered it more diplomatically. She replied, "I think it differs from apple to apple. Nepo kids or non-nepo kids, everyone comes with their demons to face. It is as simple; once you are in the game, even if your father is the coach, he is still standing on the sidelines. There is nothing he can do for you to win the game. There is divine intervention, and the ball is always in the audience's court". While on Nepotism, Akshay, always being himself, said he was unaware of the term Nepotism; when it came first, he asked his wife Tina(Twinkle Khanna) about it.
The host also displayed the Ormax survey, in which Samantha Prabhu came first, surpassing Alia Bhatt, who came in second. The lone male star from Bollywood, Akshay Kumar, came in at number five. Samantha joked about paying the Ormax media for it, but Johar had to step in as usual and mention Alia. Is he being compensated for bringing her up in each episode?
The trio talked about an important discussion regarding what are the apparent reasons behind the reducing popularity of Bollywood over Tollywood. Akshay and Karan Johar who are producing a movie shared how they cannot get two heroes to collaborate and star in a movie in Bollywood. In contrast, there is no problem with two heroines collaborating and starring in a film together. On this, Samantha told everyone that I and my other co-actoress are indeed good friends, and we don't have any problem working together.
If we talk about South Cinema, slowly and gradually, the unification of the south and north is in progress. Samantha, the south diva, has set the bar high for upcoming guests from Tollywood. It was not the first a south actor was invited to the show.
Another thing that became the topic of conversation was how energetic and charismatic Ranveer Singh is. Sam's affection for Ranveer was quite evident from her reactions as mentioned she is Ranveer-ified. The likeability of Ranveer's was indeed in the air.
The guests had a great time in the Rapid-Fire round, and Akshay easily won the hamper with his quirky and witty response. However, he decided to give Prabhu his hamper as it was her first time. On the other hand, the actress won the quiz round; she nailed the game with all the excitement as if her hand was glued to the buzzer the whole time. In this round, we also saw the actors perform different dance forms to the song 'Oo Antava.' and some sassy moves by both the stars; Sam came out on top by two points.
Overall the episode was sensible. Both the stars were spunky and savage with their answers. It was good to see more honest talk and fewer gossip sessions on the show. This season Karan has held his horses tight on the habit of prying into people's lives. It was delightful to get a closer look at Raji(Samantha's character in Family Man) a little closer. Not only did these two feast us on the soundest of answers, but they also grilled Karan Johar with all the sauciness and showed us some scintillating dance moves.
For the fourth episode, we would see the ladies' newfound crush Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Pandey.
