Nikkhil Advani directed his first solo film Kal Ho Naa Ho under the banner of Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. The film was one of the biggest hits of 2003 and starred Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta.
However, soon after the film, Nikkhil left Karan Johar's company and now in an interview, the director said that it was a “very public fallout”, after which, nobody wanted to work with him.
In the latest episode of The Streaming Show podcast, Nikkhil recalled, “Post Kal Ho Naa Ho, I didn’t have work for three years. Nobody wanted to work with me. I left Dharma Productions and it was a very public fallout. And I didn’t have work for three years and when I finally started working again post D-Day, I just wanted to do anything and everything, never be in that position again.”
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In a 2013 interview with The Times of India, Nikkhil Advani said that he and Karan Johar never sat down and discussed what went wrong between them even though the two had known each other from their school days. “We both had egos that time in 2004. After I directed Kal Ho Naa Ho, the relation between assistant director and director became that of two directors who both made superhit films. We have never sat down and asked each other what went wrong, but when Yash uncle passed away, we started talking to each other again,” Nikkhil said.
Karan, in his memoir, An Unsuitable Boy, had mentioned that he regretted not directing Kal Ho Naa Ho.
