Karan Johar is super cool. Be it his swanky wardrobe collection or banters with colleagues, KJo is all things amazing. Oh, and, not to forget his quintessential celebrity talk show Koffee With Karan. Wait, we aren't going to talk about KWK. This time, the focus is only on Karan Johar. The filmmaker, in an interaction with Masters' Union's Business of Bollywood, has shared a fun incident when his father, the late filmmaker Yash Johar, asked him to sign a couple of cheques. Karan Johar, who admitted that he was “totally spoilt” and his father took care of all the things, said, “I was totally spoilt, one day I came back from an IIFA award and my father wanted me to sign cheques and I wrote lots of love because I was used to signing autographs, I was that disconnected from finance.”
The revelation was made when Karan Johar was talking about how clueless he was about finances after his father's death. Yash Johar died in 2004 after battling cancer. He said, “The fourth day after my father passed away, we had a prayer meeting and I came back to the office sitting all alone thinking how am I gonna take this company? I don't even know where my money is. I don't because my dad did everything for my mom and me.”
Karan Johar also spoke about the letter Yash Johar left behind for him. The filmmaker added that it was more of a business letter. It carried details about mutual funds, investments and the people whom KJo can trust. Calling it a Bible, KJo said, "It was a business letter, it wasn't an emotional letter. That letter actually said where the funds were in terms of your mutual funds, your investments. He even said these are people you trust, these are people you don't trust. This is how you should take the business forward. It became kind of my Bible.”
He added, “It carried detailed things about bank accounts and where money is, where property investments are." Karan Johar then said that he called up Apoorva Mehta, his childhood friend and now the CEO & Producer of Dharma Productions, who decided to come back from London and help him. At one point during the chat, KJo said, “Dharma Production left like a start-up. We were clueless about how to sell a film. We were learning on the job. Making mistakes and the only thing we had was a deep commitment to the company and a lot of passion to take it forward.”
Karan Johar also recalled the advice Shah Rukh Khan gave him when he was feeling shaky about producing Kaal. He said, “I remember starting my journey in 2004. We were making a film called Kaal. At that time I thought, maybe, we should not make it. And, I remember Shah Rukh Khan [one of the producers of the film] called me and said ‘actually it is a smaller film and you should make it. Learn from your mistakes, and make your mistakes.'"
You can watch the full interview here:
Karan Johar has also shared a clip of the “amazing chat” on Instagram. He wrote, “Had an amazing chat with Pratham Mittal of Masters Union Business School on the business of Bollywood. Getting right down to the maths of it all and shout out to Apoorva Mehta for being my saviour in all the madness of the numbers.”
Karan Johar made his directorial debut with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. He is making a comeback with Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt in lead roles.