Did you know the idea of Dhanlakshmi Sweets in Rocky Aur Rani came from Karan Johar’s own family business?

In our latest Sit With Hitlist episode, Karan Johar reveals how his production house got it's name, and the similarity between Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani and his own family business in Delhi

Not many people know that before Karan Johar’s father Yash Johar got into the filmmaking business, their family owned a mithai business in Delhi, quite like Ranveer Singh’s character in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani.

"My family business was much like Dhanlakshmi Laddoos, it was a mithai business. It was called Nanking Sweets in Delhi,” Karan tells Mid-day during our latest Sit With Hitlist episode.

So how did Yash Johar end up making films? The journey is quite fascinating. “My father was much more. He was a photographer, so my Dadi, who we call Mataji, told him, 'You should go. This is not for you. You go, you take the train and just go to Bombay.' The first thing he did when he landed in Bombay was go into Times of India, where he met a gentleman called Mr. Dubey and became a photography intern, which took him to the sets of Mughal-e -Azam and other things.

“From there he became like a ground manager. He worked himself up to be a production manager to finally a production controller to working for Navketan Films for over 12 years, to being the only rare person who got front credit for production controller. Everybody in the industry knew him. He was very popular and he was good at what he did. So, Dev Saab, Vijay Anand, Raj Kapoor, K Asif Sunil Dutt, everybody had worked with him, till he took a sabbatical. He started an import-export business called Yash One Exports.”

Yash Johar was encouraged to make films again by Ramesh Behl, Goldie Behl’s father. “Ramesh Behl at that time pushed my father back and said this is in your core, you have to make a film. So, it was Srishti and Goldie Behl’s father Ramesh Behl, who pushed my father back into the movies. That is how he met Salim-Javed and they had the script of Dostana. Amit (Amitabh Bachchan) uncle and my mom went to school together. He was in Sherwood and she was in the Sister School, Saint Mary’s, so they have known each other since then. It all came together as a film and Dostana happened. It was funded at that time by the Hinduja Family.

Karan Johar also revealed how his production house got its name. “It is from Dharam Hinduja. God bless his soul, he is no more. But it is named after SP Hinduja’s son Dharam Hinduja. My father made Dharam into Dharma. And we began the journey 43 years ago."

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