Karan Johar has finally opened up about selling a 50% stake in Dharma Productions. The stake was sold to Adar Poonawalla (Serum Institute of India's CEO) for ₹1,000 crore last month. On Friday, KJo and Adar Poonawalla sat down for a chat with producer Siddharth Roy Kapur. During the discussion, Karan humorously remarked that he might rename the company to “Pharma Productions” or “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Serum.” Karan also called this partnership “a great marriage of two minds.” The filmmaker said, “I felt it was the best decision for us because it was coming together of somebody like-minded people, and also someone who possibly would allow me my creative vision and yet contribute so strongly to the growth by giving me his terrific business insight. So, I thought it was a great marriage of two minds.”
During an appearance on CNBC-TV18 Global Leadership Summit, Karan Johar added, “It (the partnership) really was not a big decision for us because when it came to partnering with Adar, it was just easy. It was like both Apoorva (Mehta, CEO of Dharma Productions) and I, who have built the company together, both (of us) knew that he was the best possible partnership for Dharma Productions and for where we want to take it.”
Karan Johar also talked about the journey of Dharma Productions. He said, “I have to say that, contrary to what people might know of or feel of Dharma productions, actually, it is a rather nascent company when it comes to multiple productions and building it in a studio model. We actually began our journey with multiple productions that we started with – Wake Up Sid, I Hate Love Stories and a film called Kurbaan. I signed my first deal with Ronnie Screwvala. So, the Parsi community has been very kind to me. Subsequently, we built Dharma Productions right up to 2023. Our journey of producing multiple films and content has been 15 years old. Prior to that, it was just films that I directed that my father (Yash Johar) had curated over the years, which were very few films. And there came a point of time where I felt that for our own growth, we needed the investment.”
Mentioning how Dharma Productions needed a partner for profitability, Karam Johar added, “We needed to kind of not partner with everyone and increase our profitability and therein came the decision to sell stake and build in a partnership with somebody. At that point, we did all the due diligence. We did all the work, and the idea was to kind of create further verticals at Dharma Productions. Besides, we have Dharmatic (Entertainment.). We have an ad division, we have Dharma 2.0.”
“But the whole idea to build our own distribution network, perhaps or maybe double in the music arena and many other verticals, is something that I dreamt of. But, I needed the partnership for that. And in many ways when Adar has been a family friend for many years spoke to me, and we decided to come together on this,” Karan Johar concluded.
Karan Johar last produced Jigra. The film, directed by Vasan Bala, featured Alia Bhatt and Vedang Raina in key roles.