Hours after, Rajeev Masand was named, the COO of Karan Johar's talent management agency Dharma Cornerstone, Kangana Ranaut took to Twitter to share her views on the news. The Queen actress wrote, "Rajeev wrote the most poisonous blind items about Shushant and me, he openly licked mediocre star kids and gave negative reviews to genuinely good films, even as a journalist he was always KJO minion. Good he left jurno facade and joined KJO officially. "However, this wasn't all. The Tanu Weds Manu actor further took this opportunity to point out how the industry lacks ethics, with the "movie mafia" controlling all aspects of media and publications to turn them in their own favour, running smear campaigns against those not considered 'their own'.
A report in Bollywood Hungama states that Karan Johar has hired Rajeev Masand for his agency. A source informed the portal, “Journalist Rajeev Masand is all set to join DCA next week. He’ll be working as the COO of the company. Karan and other top authorities at Dharma believe that he’ll be the right person for the job and help them in scouting fresh talent and managing them. ”The report further stated that this could mean Rajeev Masand may have quit journalism for good. In December 2020, Karan Johar announced his foray into talent management with Dharma Cornerstone Agency (DCA). Johar launched the talent management agency in partnership with Bunty Sajdeh, who already owns Cornerstone. The filmmaker took to his social media handles to share an official statement along with the logo of the agency.
In July, Masand, had recorded his his statement in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case at the Bandra Police station. Earlier, actor Manoj Bajpayee and filmmaker Apurva Asrani had collectively called out Rajeev Masand on Twitter for vicious blind items against Sushant Singh Rajput. Asrani wrote, "Attacking soft targets like KRK, while keeping mum on the more powerful 'blind item' experts is sheer hypocrisy. KRK is vile, but at least has the guts to put his name to his opinions. Rajeev's blind items against #SushantSinghRajput are vicious & cowardly. Don't be selective."Bajpayee quoted the same and added, “It is hypocrisy to selectively call out journalists who hurt innocent talents with slander. I am very upset to read the blind items by Rajeev Masand in your tweet & I support you in calling him out. But the effort to stop toxic people like KRK is genuine too. Let's stand united.”