Karan Johar says Adar Poonawalla is ‘a dear family friend' for many years: 'Someone who'd allow me my creative vision'

It was recently announced that billionaire businessman Adar Poonawalla’s Serene Productions will invest ₹10 billion in Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions.

The recent news of billionaire businessman Adar Poonawalla’s Serene Productions investing ₹10 billion in Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions shook the Hindi film industry. In an interview with CNBC TV18, Karan opened up on how the deal came through. (Also Read – Bhavana Pandey says Karan Johar is both provocateur and peacemaker: ‘Pehle aag lagao, then he puts the water’)

Karan Johar says Adar Poonawalla is a dear family friend

Karan on partnership with Adar

“In many ways, when Adar, who's a dear, dear friend for many years, spoke to me and we decided to come together on this, I felt it was the best decision for us. Because it was the coming together of two like-minded people, and yet someone who'd allow me my creative vision yet contribute so strongly to the growth by giving me his terrific business insight. I thought it was a great marriage of two minds. It really wasn't a big decision for us because when it came to Adar, it was just easy. Both Apurva (Dharma Productions CEO) and I, who've built it, knew that he's the best partnership for Dharma Productions and where we want to take it,” Karan said.

On selling stake

The filmmaker added that the idea of selling his company's stakes stemmed from his dream of expanding into more verticals, like a distribution network and a music label. He said Dharma Productions is a “rather nascent” company when it comes to operating as a studio. It started only in the late 2000s with films like Kurbaan (2009), Wake Up Sid (2009), and I Hate Luv Storys (2010).

“In a sense, our journey of producing multiple films and content has been only 15 years old. Prior to that, it was just films I'd directed that my father curated over the years, which were very few films really. There came a point in time when I felt that for our own growth, we needed the investment. We needed not to partner with anybody and contribute to our own profitability. Therein came the decision to sell stake and build a partnership with somebody,” Karan added.

Serene will hold a 50% stake in Karan’s production house in a deal that values the Indian movie studio at ₹20 billion.