Karan Johar with Kareena Kapoor Khan and Alia Bhatt on Koffee With Karan season 8, episode 4.
“Chhee chhee, this is all some Page 3 talk that Reddit will be getting off on after this one thread,” said Alia Bhatt on the Koffee With Karan show recently, where she appeared with Kareena Kapoor Khan. Those unfamiliar with how the anonymous platform works were quite intrigued with what exactly a Reddit sub is and what ‘thread’ Alia was referring to.
An anonymous site meant for communities around the world to connect with each other, Reddit has found a mention thrice on this season of Koffee With Karan — one sub (or subreddit, a forum on Reddit dedicated to a specific topic) in particular r/BollyBlindsNGossip, operational since February 8, 2018, is a hotbed of Bollywood gossip from insiders which is sometimes unverified (but mostly true if one were to go by their track record).
The sub allows its members — industry insiders, highly-placed sources, PR managers — to share juicy gossip and revelations with their fellow members. A thread (which is essentially a post on the sub) often has titles like “Major tea on ___”, in which the blank is usually a Bollywood celeb’s name. The replies are flooded with fellow gossipers reacting to the revelations or at times, debunking it with proof.
How did a Reddit community of 7 lakh-odd members become big enough to be mentioned on Koffee With Karan, a show that is meant for sizzling revelations but so far has been lukewarm?
Deep-Veer fiasco and Open Marriage rumours
Since Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s much-publicised wedding in 2018, r/BollyBlindsNGossip was buzzing with rumours from industry sources about the couple being in an ‘open marriage’ — none of which, were substantiated. They were mostly based on the couple’s awkward interactions in public and their very few appearances for events. The moderators often add a disclaimer ‘Exaggerated claims; no sources, no proof’ for such unverified news items.
That was until the recent Koffee With Karan episode where Deepika-Ranveer appeared on the couch together. Gossip mongers were quick to dig out an old video of Ranveer Singh from Koffee With Karan season 3 episode 16 where he used the same details to describe his first meeting with Anushka Sharma as he did for Padukone. The drama took a rather wild turn when an old video of Padukone from Koffee With Karan season 4 episode 6, filmed in 2013 surfaced, which pointed towards a discrepancy in the timeline of their relationship.
The exposé on the sub was huge, so huge that it spilled over to X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and other social media platforms. In the Koffee With Karan episode with guests Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra made plenty of oblique references to fiasco — joking about how Karan ‘ruins marriages’ and that on the Koffee couch, ‘married men often get into trouble’. Dhawan and Malhotra were extra cautious about the details and timelines of their relationships with Natasha Dalal and Kiara Advani, respectively, so careful that it became painfully hilarious at one point, with Johar interjecting ‘you think my show gets people into trouble?’
Plastic surgery, Nepo kids and Hookups
Many members of r/BollyBlindsNGossip saw the Deep-Veer episode as a confirmation of the ‘open marriage’ rumours. It is important to mention here that neither Padukone nor Singh have confirmed the rumours, and are married to each other. In the past, the sub has made other shocking revelations that eventually came true.
r/BollyBlindsNGossip is often a hub of fanwars, which the moderators have a difficult time controlling. The fans of the celebs often accuse mods of being ‘paid PR’ and ‘biased’. The mods, of course, have none of it.
There exist boundaries, however. There are dos and don’ts. The sub has a strict no-spamming policy. It prohibits harassment, body shaming, inflammatory religious or political discussions. When talking about plastic surgeries, the Redditors cannot body shame actors. When commenting on alleged affairs hookups, slut-shaming is strictly prohibited.
For instance, before the Alia-Kareena Koffee With Karan episode aired, moderators shared a long list of topics which were off-limits — any comments on Alia, Ranbir’s daughter led to a straight ban, no comments on Ranbir unless Alia brings it up, no comments on Kareena’s son Jeh or Taimur or their names (to keep religious discussions at bay). And, of course, any unverified gossip goes with appropriate disclaimers.
Legal threats and intimidation by Bollywood
Since the entire Bollywood ecosystem, either directly or through their PRs, read the sub and know what is being said about them, the moderators often receive legal threats by ardent fans of the actors. u/EccentricBai, known as EB (name undisclosed to protect privacy), is the admin of r/BollyBlindsNGossip. In a conversation with Moneycontrol, she shares that the death of Sushant Singh Rajput was a difficult time to moderate the sub. The sub shot into popularity during the Sushant-Rhea (Chakraborty) case from 2020. “But the most difficult time is now. We are at the juncture where we can either become a new voice of the audience or could be dismissed as trolling subreddit.”
“Our Flairs don’t sit well with Fangroups,” says EB. A flair on Reddit is essentially a ‘tag’ that is added to every post on the subreddit. Some examples of flairs are ‘Kalesh with Karan’ (referring to Koffee With Karan) “Sara, Rosesh of Bollywood” (referring to Sara Ali Khan’s poetry), “Ranbir, Lipstick Wipe Astra” (referring to Alia Bhatt’s controversial Vogue lipstick interview) and “Plastic Surgery, Doctor Gives What God Doesn’t Give You” (referring to Rakhi Sawant’s comment on plastic surgery. “Till now, we haven’t removed any posts due to pressure . If someone threatens us, we pin that post on top,” says EB.
“One Salman Khan fan threatened us with a lawsuit as his flair is mocking his court cases,” says EB. They have been threatened so far by Salman Khan’s legal team but haven’t been forced to take down any post or appear in a court of law because Reddit has legal mechanisms to protect the anonymity of its members.
As far as the invasion of privacy of the celebrity goes, the sub only dissects and comments on what celebs consensually share in the public domain via Instagram/movie promotions. If an industry insider shares gossip/blind, it goes with appropriate disclaimers.
The road ahead for Bollywood gossip
Has Page 3 been replaced by Reddit? If the Reddit sub is anything to go by, the answer is affirmative. r/BollyBlindsNGossip has 19 moderators who work in shifts. “We have Mods (moderators) from all time zones. Koffee With Karan timings are easy, as we have a few Mods in the GMT zone and they handle the mayhem in their evening time. Our the US Mods take over when Indian Mods are not online. Moderating at a time of peak activity is not difficult. Our members also know the rules and they report to get spam removed”, says EB.
In an industry where actors have hyperactive PR teams, it is difficult for even entertainment portals to come across juicy gossip. They are often seen turning to Reddit for help. Many actors, including Imran Khan, Priyanka Chopra have even hosted their AMAs (Ask Me Anything) on sister subs of r/BollyBlindsNGossip, such as r/Bollywood, r/BollywoodActors. “I don’t see the media picking our content as stealing. Most publications give us credit and link our posts with their articles. It helps us in attracting new members on Reddit. Our only gripe is they call us Netizens, we want to be called Redditors,” says EB.
The question is — what is in it for the moderators? Reddit, for one, doesn’t pay the moderators of subreddits to keep the site running. “Moderating an active subreddit is a lot of fun. Keeping an eye on the mood of members, making decisions about rules, discussing how to handle controversy — it feels very empowering. We love Bollywood and gossip, so this doesn’t feel like work,” EB says.
