Today is the 20th death anniversary of Yash Johar.
Today is the death anniversary of the great filmmaker Yash Johar. He said goodbye to this world on 26 June 2004 at the age of 74. The entire industry was mourned by the death of Yash Johar. In his career, he has given some great films. Be it the locations or songs of his films, all won the hearts of the audience and the films did well at the box office. The founder of Dharma Productions has given many great films to Hindi cinema, one of which is ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’. Released in 2001, this film proved to be the most successful film of the year. Actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Kareena Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan and Rani Mukherjee were seen in the film. But, do you know that Yash Johar went into debt while making this film.
The film for which Yash Johar went into debt
Yes, Nikhil Advani, who was the assistant director of the film, revealed this in an interview given to Film Companion. This film was directed by Karan Johar and his father Yash Johar was its producer. Sharing an anecdote related to the film, Nikhil Advani told that when Yash Johar was given the proposal of this film, its budget was 24.50 crores, but by the time it was made, the budget of this film went up by 30 crores i.e. 54.50 crores. 54 crores was a huge amount in those days.
The set of Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was set up at Filmistan Studio
Sharing an anecdote related to Yash Johar and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Nikhil had said- ‘After listening to the budget of the film, Yash ji took a paper and wrote something and folded it and kept it in his pocket. He said- okay, go make the film. In the year 2000, spending 24 crores in making a film was a big deal. We started shooting. On the first day, we shot the song ‘Bole Chudiyan’ with 200 dancers and 300 junior artists. We had set up the set in Filmistan. The studio had 10 floors and all were rented by Dharma Productions. For a few days, Filmistan had become Dharma Studio.’
The budget of the film reached 54 crore 50 lakhs
Nikhil Advani further said- ‘One day Yash ji called me outside. He asked, do you remember how much budget we had set for the film? I said, Sir, there is a lot of stress, I will have to check. Yash ji then took out a paper from his pocket and said, we had set an art budget of 3 crores for the entire film and you have spent 3 crores 60 lakhs on the set. Then Yash ji tore the paper and said, make the film. Within no time, the budget of the film reached 54 crores 50 lakhs. Not only in cost production, we had to struggle a lot during the release of the film as well.’
Highest-grossing film of 2001
‘At the last moment, the deal for Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham with a big studio could not be finalised. Yash ji talked to his closest friend and asked for help. But, he said that he did not have that much money. Later Yash ji distributed the film on 17.5% refundable commission.’ Let us tell you, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, released in 2001, collected more than 135 crores worldwide. It was the highest grossing film of that year.
