Indian filmmaker Karan Johar has twins via surrogate

NEW DELHI – Leading Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar said Sunday that he’s become a parent to twins born via surrogate.

“This was an emotional yet a well thought out decision which I have taken after considering all the responsibilities and duties that come with being a parent,” Johar said in a message posted on Twitter.

He said the twins, a boy and a girl, have been named Yash and Roohi.

Johar said that he was “eternally grateful” to the surrogate who helped fulfil his “lifelong dream.”

Johar, who is single, is not the only Indian celebrity to have children with the help of a surrogate. Superstar Shahrukh Khan and his wife, Gauri, welcomed a third child via surrogate in 2013.

Commercial surrogacy has been legal in India since 2001, but the government has said it is planning legislation that would end that in order to protect the poor women usually used as surrogates. It has also said the new law would bar gay people, single parents and foreigners from using surrogates.