Twenty years ago when Aditya Chopra’s assistant and Yash Johar’s son Karan Johar announced that he was making a film everybody assumed that he was overconfident. Even his mother Hiroo Johar while doing his aarti before sending him off on his first day at work lowered her voice to gently whisper “I hope you know where to place the camera beta”.
Johar did not mind her caution and arrived on the sets fully prepared all the shots. He was privileged to have lead stars Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan pair in his film and he had signed Kajol’s cousin Rani Mukherji to play an important role.
He was confident of the music he had recorded and convinced about the story based on his personal experience at school. Now it was up to the actors to live up to his story and they did. It was a Diwali release I remember and everywhere Karan Johar went in those days, he was told how the film fraternity was banking on his film to revive the fortunes.
Come Friday and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998 revived the fortunes of not just film business but also his father’s banner Dharma Productions and in these 20 years Karan Johar has never looked back.
@bhawanasomaaya