Karan Johar's "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" [KKHH] is the most important Bollywood film of the past 25 years. Where "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (DDLJ) [1995] was the bud, KKHH represents the flowering on celluloid, of the popular seduction (almost a 'branding') of the Indian Diaspora with a new type of genre, the 'Diaspora flavored' Bollywood film. KKHH was a huge hit abroad, and it also hit a chord with Metropolitan Indian audiences. Before KKHH the lowest common denominator for a Bollywood film had been to make sure a film catered to 'Indian tastes', and KKHH had now added a whole new 'Western' spice to the mix.

"Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" also marked (among many other things) the entry of Bollywood to the post modern. Consciously referential to the Yash Chopra style of 'glamorous realism' and the Bollywood oeuvre, KKHH updates and re-forms the essential 'heart' of Hindi Popular cinema. The film extensively used Brechtian notions of self-conscious theater such as characters looking into the camera and sound effects that go against continuity. The film is color coded, in primary hues, creating a hyper-reality. The effect is a film that engages and then disrupt the viewer into realization they are watching a movie.

One of the most entertaining and engaging Bollywood films ever made, KKHH is responsible for 'converting' huge numbers of non-Indians in the West to the wonders of Bollywood.