One Shah Rukh Khan film made an iconic director-producer lose all his money. His son, a superstar, reveals, 'He had to mortgage the house and our cars; there was no furniture…’

Today, Hrithik Roshan is one of the wealthiest stars in Bollywood, with a net worth of over Rs 2,000 crore. However, the Dhoom 2 star did not always experience prosperity even though his father, Rakesh Roshan, was a successful director-producer. As a popular song written by Irving Berlin, the song goes, 'No Business Like Show Business'. One of the most unpredictable businesses in existence - it can make major players feel on top of the world one moment and make them go bankrupt by next Friday. In an old chat with Zee ETC Bollywood, the superstar revealed he once witnessed his father breaking down over suffering losses – he had invested a lot of money in the 1997 film Koyla, which starred Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit and, despite a stellar cast, did not set the box office on fire.

“There was a time, I think after one of his films, I think after Koyla, when there were some problems at home. He had lost all his money. Whatever he had earned, everything that he had earned, so there were problems coming from all sides. I saw him one morning, and whatever he had made, he said, ‘I have lost everything.’ So that was the first time, actually, that I saw tears in his eyes,” he recalled.

In an old interview with Simi Garewal, the Kaho Na Pyaar Hai star said there was a time when, hit hard by losses, Rakesh Rishan could not pay the rent. His mother, Pinky Roshan, took Hrithik and his sister to her parent’s home while Rakesh lived with his mother.


“Until the time my dad could earn enough money to buy another house. And then we shifted into another house which was barely just walls and floors. "We slept on mattresses, these mats and slowly got the furniture in,” Hrithik recalled.

When Rakesh Roshan chose to cast his son Hrithik Roshan as the main actor in *Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai*, he made a big financial risk. The movie went over its initial budget by almost Rs 3 crore, so Rakesh had to sell his family home and his cars to get the extra money needed to finish the film.

At that time, Hrithik didn't know how much financial pressure his father was facing. Rakesht told Mid Day that he was ready to use the resources he had and, if needed, get money by using the family's assets. He also knew that if the movie didn't work out, he could end up having to leave his home and move somewhere else, but he decided to go ahead and take the chance.

Hrithik realised how serious the situation was much later. While thinking back about the time covered in the documentary The Roshans, he mentioned that his mom finally told him that both their home and cars were taken out as loans. The revelation made him realise just how much his family had put on the line.

According to the Hurun Rich List, Hrithik has a net worth of a whopping Rs 2,500 crore.