'Tumhein kuch nai aata,' Shah Rukh Khan once got upset on Karan Johar on the sets of 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', recalls Nikhil Advani

Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar share a great bonding and the filmmaker has often said that the actor is like family to him. SRK also starred in Karan's debut film as a director, and in a recent interview filmmamker Nikhil Advani has opened up on the memories during the film. He revealed how Shah Rukh Khan got upset on Karan Johar

Nikhil reflected on working on Karan Johar’s debut directorial. He revealed that in their enthusiasm, the team had overprepared for day one. According to him, Karan had ordered almost every piece of equipment available, even though the scene didn’t really demand it. It was Shah Rukh Khan who eventually pointed out the excess.


Recounting the incident, Nikhil said during a chat with Radio Nasha, “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.”

However, the mood shifted once the shoot wrapped up for the day. Nikhil added, “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!’”

The experience left a lasting impression on him. “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,” Nikhil shared.

Shifting focus to Kal Ho Naa Ho, Nikhil also spoke about directing the film’s emotionally charged climax. When asked whether he himself was overwhelmed while shooting Shah Rukh Khan’s death scene, he admitted that he struggled with how to approach it. “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,” he said.

He further explained the pressure of following another iconic performance by the actor. “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,” he recalled.

Summing up his approach to the climax, Nikhil concluded, “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.”