Karan Johar spoke about his legacy and how his father late producer Yash Johar had delivered five flops before ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’.
Karan Johar sold 50 percent stake of his production house Dharma Productions to Adar Poonawalla in 2024 for Rs 1,000 crore.
In a recent interaction, the filmmaker spoke about the decision and revealed that he took it because he wanted to grow the company and needed funds for it.
He also spoke about the history of his company and said that they started making hits consistently only after Karan started directing films in 1998, as before that Dharma had a string of flops.
Speaking to Raj Shamani on his YouTube channel, Karan admitted that many of Dharma Productions’ films were collaborative efforts at first, which is why a major portion of the profit had to be divided among the partners, and not remain with Dharma.
He said that he eventually became wary of making films through such partnerships and explained, “I didn’t want to do collaborative projects so that all the profit remains with Dharma Productions.
Our biggest hits at that time all had partners because we couldn’t finance those films in our own capacity, as we were new.” Talking about his father and late producer Yash Johar’s legacy, he said, “People who say nepotism don’t know my history. I inherited goodwill from my father, but not money.
Before Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, we had given 5 consecutive flops.” Karan recalled that it was his film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai that revived Dharma Productions.
He said, “The release of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998 established Dharma Productions as a strong company. What I had was my father’s goodwill and his tremendous belief. He had tremendous goodwill, he was loved a lot but he did not get success.”
Karan spoke about how the success of his films after KKHH, such as Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kal Ho Naa Ho and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna helped make Dharma Productions a lucrative company.
However, after seeing the success of these films, Yash Johar passed away. Karan’s childhood friend Apoorva Mehta came to his rescue to help Dharma Productions.
He said, “After my father passed away in 2004, I had to take the company further and I couldn’t have done it without Apoorva Mehta (CEO of Dharma Productions). He was my best friend in school and he left his whole life in London and came back to Mumbai overnight.
We have had our own journey. To date my business skills are zero, but the instincts are strong. He handles the business part, I am the creative person.” Explaining his decision to sell his stake in Dharma Productions to Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla, he said, “In 2023, we realised we needed to leverage and grow.
It would have taken me another 5-7 years to grow naturally in our business. I needed funds to grow and today, I am happy with my partnership with Adar.
He is an amazing human being and his instincts are very strong. I feel accountable because it is someone else’s money. I need to achieve success and make my company profitable.”
However, when it was argued that Dharma Productions did not have a good year in 2024 in terms of lucrative projects, Karan defended his films, saying, “Kill was very well received, Mr and Mrs Mahi made profits, Bad Newz also made profits, Jigra also made profits and right now we are set to produce our first Punjabi film Akal, then Dhadak 2 is coming.
So we are very excited and enthusiastic about it.” Sharing his views on success and failure in the film business, he said, “I don’t take success seriously or failures to heart.
Failure is an end result. Sometimes I like the end result. I get annoyed with an average film. I want results. You tell me where I am wrong, I will learn from it and move forward.”
Karan Johar spoke he has got ‘respect but not money’ from his father, reveals why he partnered with Adar Poonawalla for Rs 1000 crore
