'I will not engage with talent from the neighbouring country'

'The best way to express your patriotism is to spread love and that's all I have ever tried to do through my work and cinema.'

Karan Johar broke his silence on the controversy over his new film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil by releasing a video statement.

In the video, Johar said, "There has been some talk about why I remained silent for the past two weeks. The reason why I remained silent is because of deep sense of pain I felt that a few people would actually believe that I am being anti-national."

"For me, my country comes first, nothing else matters to me but my country," he said.

He added, "The best way to express your patriotism is to spread love and that's all I have ever tried to do through my work and cinema. When I shot my film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in September to December last year, the climate was completely different, circumstances were different."

"There were efforts made by our government for peaceful relationships with the neighbouring country and I respected those efforts then and I respect the sentiment today," the filmmaker-producer said. 

"Going forward, I would like to say that of course I will not engage with talent from the neighbouring country, given the circumstance but with that same energy, I beseech you one thing: over 300 Indian people have put their blood, sweat and tears into my film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. I don't think it's fair to them to face any kind of turbulence on account of other fellow Indians."

Johar said he respected the Indian army and that he condemned any form of terrorism.