This film-maker, who was Karan Johar’s childhood bully, later directed one of his biggest hits

Film-maker Nikhil Advani recently admitted that he used to be a bully at school. The ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ director revealed he used to terrorise director-producer Karan Johar while they were at students. In a candid interview with Cyrus Broacha on the YouTube show Cyrus Says, he said that he was taken aback when the ‘Koffee With Karan’ talk show host approached him for a professional collaboration as he had bullied him in school.

“Karan [Johar] meets me and says, ‘Will you hear my script?’ and I say sure, and he goes, ‘I have only written half,’ and I say no problem. I go to his house… He then narrated the script and I said it was very good, it was superb. He said, ‘Will you assist me?’ which is quite weird because I used to bully him in school. Because he was the red house and I was the greenhouse and I was a batch holder. I was very good at sports..” he said.

Advani added, “I bullied him a lot. Everybody used to bully Karan, it was unfortunate. Now today he can bully all of us! So yeah, we started working on Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.”


For the unversed, ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ was produced by Karan Johar, while Advani directed it. Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, and Saif Ali Khan, the movie became one of the biggest hits of 2003. Following the movie’s monumental success, the two had a fallout over creative differences. However, later they buried the hatchet.

Advani later directed movies such as Batla House, Delhi Safari, Salaam-E-Ishq, Patiala House, and Chandni Chowk To China. His most recent directorial effort, Vedaa, starred John Abraham and Sharvari as the leads. However, the movie struggled commercially, achieving less than expected at the box office.