Nikkhil Advani on 'Kal Ho Naa Ho': 'People said I didn't make the film, everything was done by Karan Johar'

Nikkhil Advani made his directorial debut with Kal Ho Naa Ho that starred Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, and Saif Ali Khan. While speaking to Rajshri Unplugged recently, the filmmaker made some unheard revelations about him, the film, and his fallout with Karan Johar who produced the film.

He said, “Unfortunately after the blockbuster release of Kal Ho Naa Ho, Karan and I, had some kind of misunderstandings and we didn’t speak to each other. We chose to listen to what other people were telling us and we moved away from each other.”

On Patiala House‘s failure

After Patiala House’s failure I don’t think anybody wanted to work with me. Most people had written me off saying that they knew that I didn’t make Kal Ho Naa Ho and everything was done by Karan. And I always mention that without the script of Karan, without the support of Karan and Yash Johar and Shah Rukh Khan, Kal Ho Naa Ho wouldn’t have been made. We used to make films like a family.

Also, talking about Kal Ho Naa Ho, while speaking to Firstpost, the filmmaker said, “I have two big memories of Kal Ho Naa Ho. One, I was very fortunate to be given an opportunity by Karan Johar, his father Yash Johar, his mother Hiroo Johar, to be trusted for a film of this scale, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Jaya Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan. We shot the film in New York, Anil Mehta was the DOP, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy as the music directors, Javed Akhtar as the lyricist. It’s a huge huge film for a debut filmmaker. The second memory is a little sad; while we were filming for the film, we discovered Yash Johar was suffering from cancer, and just after the release, he passed away. These are the two memories I have of Kal Ho Naa Ho.”