Filmmaker Karan Johar has been is news since last few weeks after his production house fired Kartik Aaryan from the film 'Dostana 2'. Soon after the news broke out, Karan faced backlash for being an antagonist of sorts for Kartik. The debate about the nepotism and starkids started again. Now that he has to make the casting decision for the replacement of Kartik Aaryan, Karan has found himself in a trouble.

To keep things fair and avoid any further backlash, Karan is thinking about casting an outsider for the role who had no prior connections to the film industry. A sourec close to the development stated, "Karan has had multiple meetings with his creative team and director brainstorming on the casting. The names zeroed in by them include Akshay Kumar, Rajkummar Rao, Varun Dhawan, Siddharth Malhotra and Siddhant Chaturvedi.”

The source further added, "Karan Johar wants an outsider to avoid any insider vs outsider debate giving a rebirth to nepotism. Hence the first choice is Akshay. But if things don’t work out, he will move ahead to explore the collaboration with other actors. Of the 5 shortlisted names, 4 are outsiders and hence, a safe bet at the moment. The core idea is to get an outsider replaced by an outsider.”