20 Years Of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham: Karan Johar feared that his film would BOMB big time; had to be taken to a psychic after having a meltdown

By Fenil Seta -

December 14, 2021 - 2:30 PM IST

Karan Johar’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham completes 20 years on December 14. This mega project, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor Khan, is remembered today not just for its performances, music, grandeur and emotional quotient, but also for its mind-blowing box office performance. Hence, it is quite shocking to read in Karan’s autobiography ‘An Unsuitable Boy’ that he feared on the day of his release that his film would bomb badly at the box office!

20 Years Of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham: Karan Johar feared that his film would BOMB big time; had to be taken to a psychic after having a meltdown

According to Karan, when he saw films like Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai, which released in the same year as Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, he feared that cinema had evolved and that his film might seem dated to viewers. What also shocked him is that Lagaan brought in the numbers as well. “My sensibilities were mixed up with those of the filmmakers of yore – Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai, Raj Kapoor. I wanted to make a film that did the numbers.”

To add to Karan’s ordeal, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham released in the Ramzan period. To be specific, it released three days before Eid. It opened at Rs. 2.38 crore, which was the biggest opening day ever in the history of Bollywood. However, since it also had the widest ever release at 500 screens, probably the trade must have expected a little more.

Moreover, some of the reviews of the film were negative. As per Karan Johar, one of the reviews read, “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham disappoints, and will entail heavy losses to all concerned. As it had opened to 50-60 per cent houses, it would make the investors happy.” Rajeev Masand called it ‘old wine, new bottle’. The other reviews were peppered with phrases like ‘nowhere close to the magic of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, ‘over the top’, ‘over-opulent’, ‘nowhere close to Lagaan which remains the film of the year’ etc.

Karan Johar then confessed that he got scared and started weeping. As mentioned in one of the recent articles on Bollywood Hungama on Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’s 20^th anniversary, as per Karan, the film’s cost was Rs. 50 crore “which is equivalent to today’s 500 crore”. His father Yash Johar’s words rang in his ears, which said that if the film flops, their economic condition would get affected and they will have to move back to their old house.

As Karan was struggling with these thoughts, his friend and writer Niranjan Iyengar called. Karan had a meltdown while speaking to him. Niranjan rushed to his place and then took him to a celebrity psychic, Sunita Menon. Karan admitted that he cried even in front of her. When she asked what happened, he told her, “My picture is going to flop and we’ll be moving back to our old house. I’ve ruined it all.”

Sunita Menon asked him to calm down. So did his friends from the industry, Aditya Chopra and Anil Thadani. They assured him that the film would pick up from Monday, the day of Eid. At this point, Karan wrote in the book, “I said to myself, if everything goes well, I’ll give up non-vegetarian food. I’ll walk to Siddhivinayak. Idiotic things I vowed in my frustration.”

On the day of Eid, all fears of Karan Johar were laid to trust. Anil Thadani called Karan and told him to come to Liberty cinema immediately. This was one of the theatres in Mumbai screening Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Karan set out but got stuck in a traffic jam. Karan saw a cop outside his car and asked him the reason for the jam. To which the cop replied that there’s a massive queue for buying the tickets of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and hence, the police had to be called for crowd control!

An excited Karan Johar got out his car and walked towards Liberty. Outside the cinema, Anil Thadani told Karan, “Have you seen this? This is what you were crying over the weekend for? Your picture is a blockbuster, screw the reviews. People are clapping in the halls!”

Also Read: 20 Years of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham - Alia Bhatt turns Poo, gives Ibrahim Ali Khan a minus; Ranveer Singh turns Hrithik Roshan