Filmmaker Nikkhil Advani and Karan Johar went to the same school in Mumbai. Recently in an interview with Cyrus Broacha, Advani revealed that he was a couple of years older than Johar and used to bully him in those days.
Both filmmakers attended Greenlawns School in Mumbai.
He admitted, “I used to bully him in school. I bullied him a lot. Everybody used to bully Karan, it was unfortunate.”
Their relationship changed for the better when the two met after the film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Johar was looking for feedback on the script of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and asked Advani to review it. “Karan meets me and says, ‘Will you hear my script?’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure'”.
An unexpected offer
Advani visited Johar’s house to read the script and that is when he figured that the script was not yet completed. However, he was still impressed. “He then narrated the script, and I said it was very good, it was superb.”
Karan Johar also extended a hearty offer which Nikkhil Advani found quite unexpected. Sharing that he recalled, “He asked me if I would assist him, which was quite weird because I used to bully him in school.”
Advani accepted the offer and started working on the film that made love triangles the most famous plot for the decade to come. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai starred Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukerji with a cameo appearance by Salman Khan.
Bollywood’s powerhouse
Back when they started, Advani worked as an assistant to Karan Johar. Now, Johar has become so powerful in the Hindi film industry that Advani jokingly said, “But today, he can bully all of us”.
The two worked on some movies together, Advani helped Karan Johar make Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Then Johar produced a movie called Kal Ho Naa Ho which the former directed. Even though the movie did well, they had disagreements about how it should be made, which caused problems between them.
They spent some time apart after that, but now they’ve sorted out their differences and are friends again.