‘You don’t know anything,’ Nikhil Advani recalls Shah Rukh Khan giving a reality check to Karan Johar on Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar on the sets of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. (Photo: Express Archive)

Actor Shah Rukh Khan has had a hold on Bollywood rom-coms for over 30 years now. Even though he has been transitioning into the avatar of an action hero, movies like Kal Ho Naa Ho, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, among many others, have been etched into his fans’ hearts. Filmmaker Nikhil Advani, who directed Kal Ho Naa Ho and was an assistant on Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, recently talked about the making of these films in a new interview. He recalled an incident when Shah Rukh was fuming at him and Karan Johar after the first day of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

While appearing on Radio Nasha’s YouTube channel, Nikhil was asked about his experience of working on Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, which was Karan’s directorial debut. He recalled that Karan had excitedly ordered every single available piece of equipment required on a film set, despite there being no need for most of it. Nikhil revealed that Shah Rukh himself made them aware of their mistake.

“So it was the day 1 shoot, and Goldie Hawn and Parmeshwar Godrej were about to come and meet Karan Johar. We had called for all the equipment, be it the dolly, the jib, and everything in between. The scene we shot isn’t in the film, but we had a tracking shot of kids crying outside a dentist’s office, and then we see Shah Rukh also crying. Young Anjali is telling him, ‘Pagal ho gaye ho kya? (Have you gone mad?) Behave yourself.’ The dentist’s nameplate said, ‘Dentist Nikhil Advani’. So we were having fun,” said Nikhil.

He continued, “We finished the day’s shoot, and Shah Rukh called me and Karan into his van, and he said, ‘Boss, you all don’t know anything; tumhe kuch nahi ata hai (you don’t know how to do anything). Why did you get all this equipment? It wasn’t required for this shot. Figure it out!’ I remember going to Karan and telling him, ‘We should just shoot the song, and I’ll learn from Farah Khan.’ So even now, a lot of shot-taking is like I am shooting a song, and I learnt that from Farah.”

Coming to his directorial Kal Ho Naa Ho, Nikhil talked about the iconic death scene in the end. He was asked if he was also crying while shooting the emotional scene, and he said, “I started crying because I didn’t really know how to shoot this scene. Anil Mehta told me to keep it simple and shoot it from Shah Rukh’s point of view. I had to convince myself that Shah Rukh had just done Devdas. His death scene was so iconic, with Aishwarya Rai running with the 9-metre saree and screaming ‘Deva…’ I had to understand that I have to make the scene between just two people.”

Nikhil concluded by saying, “Jitna rona tha film mein, utna aap pehle hi ro chuke ho (However much you had to cry while watching the film, you have already cried). The wedding is about to happen; we already know that Shah Rukh is dying, and you know that he has sacrificed. So we tried to keep that scene as simple as possible, and you never actually see Aman (Shah Rukh) dying.”