There was a time when Koffee With Karan meant Thursday nights, a television ritual complete with the sacred rapid-fire round, the coveted hamper and the burning question of what exactly was inside it. The wall of signed Koffee cups grew season after season, slowly becoming its own Bollywood Hall of Fame. Gossip, speculation and, of course, the occasional “conjecture” came free with every episode.
For 22 years, Koffee With Karan has given us a rather fabulous front-row seat to Bollywood's inner circle. What began on television eventually made its way to OTT and, inevitably, our handheld screens. Such has been the journey of the show. Now that Season 9 is confirmed as its last, here are eight episodes we still have a soft spot for.
The show had not yet become the cultural institution it would eventually be, and the early episodes had the feeling of watching Bollywood friends drop by for a chat. Opening with Bollywood’s most iconic duo, Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, the first episode remains special. They spoke about Kajol's marriage to Ajay Devgan, their pairing and the rumours that followed before diving into the show’s first-ever rapid-fire round.
Season 2 was when KWK really started discovering how much chaos could fit onto one couch. Rakhi Sawant's episode remains one of its most memorable. She was joined later by Carol Gracias and Rahul Roy, but it was Rakhi's rapid-fire appearance that stole the show, mostly for her famously unfiltered response about cosmetic surgery and doctors being able to give you what God did not.
By Season 3, the show had become much more confident about turning every episode into industry gospel. Deepika Padukone and Sonam Kapoor spoke openly about Ranbir Kapoor, who had previously been in a relationship with Deepika, and their rapid-fire answers quickly became headline material. Season 3 was the point at which KWK stopped being just a celebrity chat show and became something celebrities had to think twice about before appearing on.
In the opening episode of the season, Karan asked Salman about his sex life and received an answer that nobody in the room seemed prepared for. Salman declared that he was a virgin, and Karan's stunned reaction became almost as memorable as the answer itself.
Kangana Ranaut's episode with Saif Ali Khan remains one of the show's most talked-about. When asked to imagine Karan in a film about her life, Kangana cast him as the antagonist and called him the “flag-bearer of nepotism”.
Diljit Dosanjh and Badshah's episode was easily one of the most charming of the season. Diljit's innocent reactions to Karan's increasingly khatarnak questions were priceless, particularly when he was asked whether he had ever made out in a car or khet. He blushed, protested and eventually took the lassi shot.
After a three-year break, KWK returned with Season 7 and a noticeably different generation of stars, including a stronger presence from the South Indian film industries. Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Akshay Kumar gave us one of the season's sharpest moments when Samantha joked that Karan had made people believe marriage was Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, when reality was closer to KGF.
Sharmila Tagore and Saif Ali Khan's mother-son episode was an exceptionally lovely watch. It was their first joint interview, and the two slipped easily into familiar family banter while discussing Saif's childhood, his marriages and Sharmila's life as both an actor and a mother.
Email: anoushkakundu@newindianexpress.com
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