‘Yash Johar sent 52 crew members to Egypt just to shoot a song, used a Boeing 737 like a bus’: Nikkhil Advani recalls K3G expenses

Filmmaker Nikkhil Advani opened up about the exorbitant spending that went into Dharma Productions films directed by Karan Johar, citing the example of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. He said that Yash Johar wanted the world for his son, and left no stone unturned in realising his dreams. Nikkhil also narrated a story about traveling to Egypt to film a song with a large crew. He said that they had a chartered plane, which they used as a bus.

In an interview with Digital Commentary, he said, “Imagine Yash Johar’s vision. Yash Johar’s vision was that even if there’s a blank screen for three hours after his son’s name comes up at the end of a film, people should clap. Spending Rs 3 crore on a song was nothing. When we were making Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, 52 of us went to Egypt to shoot one song. It isn’t like Egypt is a small country. One location was in the west, the other was in the east. But we had a plane. A Boeing 737. It used to wait for us on the tarmac, 52 people were flying and coming back. We were using a plane like a bus. That’s what Yash Johar was like.” Nikkhil said that he tries to inculcate the work culture that he learned at Dharma into his own employees. “He would receive Shah Rukh Khan at the airport, and also receive a spotboy at the airport,” Nikkhil said.

Also read – ‘Karan Johar and I fought, didn’t speak to Anil Kapoor and Govinda for 10 years’: Nikkhil Advani on brittle Bollywood relationships

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In an earlier interview with Film Companion, Nikkhil had narrated a story about K3G going over-budget by Rs 30 crore. “He took the paper on which we had written the costs, folded it, put it in his pocket and said, ‘Ok, go and make the film.’ It was a huge number back in 2000. On the first day of the shoot, we were filming Bole Chudiyan, with 200 dancers, 300 junior artistes and the entire star cast was there… Then he removes the same piece of paper, unfolds it, and says, ‘Art budget was Rs 3 cr for the entire film, you have spent Rs 3.6 cr on one set.’ He tore the paper and said, ‘Now go and make this film.’ The eventual budget of the film was Rs 54.5 cr.”

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Nikkhil had spoken about how little the audience cared about box office results 20 years ago. “Earlier, we could make a Kal Ho Naa Ho and no one used to care for how much it was made for and how it’s doing. It was made for Rs 32 crore. If you talk in terms of the inflation today, it would have made more than Rs 1000 crore,” he said.