Karan Johar recently sold a 50% stake in Dharma Productions to Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla, with an investment of ₹1,000 crore in Dharma Productions and Dharmatic Entertainment. Discussing the venture at the CNBC-TV18 Global Leadership Summit, Karan admitted he was “traumatised” during the acquisition meetings. Karan Johar shared, “I didn’t know I had a value.
I found out. I’ve to say this. I’m probably not going to come across as clever.
I want to come across as who I am. I was traumatized in so many of those meetings. I’m a creative artist.
I don’t know what’s a ‘put’ and a ‘call,’ a ‘drag’ and a ‘tag.’ He (Adar) kept saying, ‘I’m going to drag and you’re going to tag.’ I know ‘drag’ in a totally different way.
I know what a ‘tag’ is in the price tag I pay in the retail zone. I know ‘put’ and ‘call’ in a very different way altogether.” Karan Johar added, “I had no idea what was happening when those Excel sheets would come in front of me.
Your reality is staring at you. You think you’ve done something so wide and vast, and then there’s a value put. So when people told Adar, ‘You’ve paid so much money!’ I say, ‘Has he really?’” Karan Johar praised Adar Poonawalla for his cooperation, calling the businessman inspirational.
He said, “The dynamism displayed by Adar Poonawalla was almost inspirational to me and everyone involved. We cracked a major part of this deal on a Zoom call. He was a .
