A couple of days ago, Karan Johar extended an invitation to the cast and crew of ‘Lootera’, after watching the film. The filmmaker, who couldn’t stop praising Vikramaditya Motwane’s film, invited the entire team to Nido, a restaurant near his home in Bandra, to have dinner with them.

"It was a very surprising gesture, but he wanted to encourage the young team behind the film," said a unit member. Confirmed Karan, "Yes, I invited them for dinner. Generally, when you’re happy about something, you celebrate it, and that was the idea. We had a great time."

Calling Vikram one of the finest filmmakers in Bollywood, Karan said he’s been left speechless by the film. "It’s not every day that we get to see an impressive love story. He has extracted terrific performances from Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha (the lead pair). They should both be proud that at such a young age, they have come up with such powerful performances," he said and added, "We haven’t seen such a love story on celluloid in a long time. Kudos to Ekta (Kapoor; co-producer) and Vikram for it."

Ask him if he’d offer Vikram a chance to direct films under his home banner, Dharma Productions, and Karan remarked, "I’d love to have him on board. In fact, I’d told him that even after watching his first film, Udaan (2010), so let’s see."

‘Lootera’ releases on July 5th.