Mumbai, Oct 22 (IANS): Multi-hyphenate Karan Johar, who is set to host the 'Weekend Ka Vaar' episode of reality television show 'Bigg Boss 16', recently had a blast during a Diwali party where he was seen in the company of his friends, celebrity designer Manish Malhotra and Bollywood actress Kajol.

Taking to the story section of his Instagram, Karan reposted a picture shared by Manish where he can be seen sharing the frame with Kajol and Manish. The 'My Name Is Khan' filmmaker went on to call Kajol and Manish as his family.

KJo wrote on the picture: "Friends and family". Both Manish and Kajol have been long-time associates of KJo having worked with him in most of his directorials. Kajol and Karan are childhood friends. However, their friendship hit a rough patch back in 2016 when self-proclaimed critic Kamal R. Khan claimed that Karan paid him Rs 25 lacs to trash 'Shivaay' which was clashing with KJo's 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' at the time.

The tweet was shared by Ajay and re-tweeted by Kajol. This did not go down well with Karan Johar.

Karan mentioned the incident in his biography 'An Unsuitable Boy' as he wrote: "I wouldnt like to give a piece of myself to her at all because she has killed every bit of emotion I had for her for twenty-five years. I don't think she deserves me. I feel nothing for her any more. I've been told by my friends that it's still my hurt talking but I'm so indifferent to the situation now, what with everything that transpired."

He further mentioned: "There was still a bit of me that wished we would get back to what we had, but that one-word tweet that she put out was the most humiliating thing she could have done for a person who loved her deeply. That broke me. Once it broke me, it angered me and then I went into indifference."

But, things soon got normal between the two and they are now back to being BFFs that B-town admires.