Behind Karan Johar's ₹3,000 Cr empire 🍿
25 year long compounding career in Bollywood.
Compounding careers are driven by exponential outcomes, which in turn happens with an obsession over your CRAFT & problem statements. Exponential careers don’t just happen by chance but through focused effort & intent.
Over the last 3 weeks, 100+ GrowthX members spent their days & nights obsessing over building bar raiser revenue strategies. Coming Sunday the top two teams are all set to present their growth strategies to the whole world LIVE. If you want to nail revenue-led growth, this is the place to be.
Onto Karan Johar now.
Christopher Nolan’s net worth is $250 Million. Compare that to Karan Johar who is at ~ $215 Million. Someone who did their first movie in 1998, can have such a compounding career and stay relevant for so long - we cover the story.
I know your first thought → “Nepotism” 💭
The recent years have not been easy on Karan → with the whole scene of nepotism & people refraining from watching his cinemas. I have zero thoughts to add to this. But, what I’m curious about is how he has built a business empire in hyper-competitive Indian cinema.
A note on compounding careers ft. Karan👇🏼
1/ Grab that room & start small early on✨
Karan started by hanging around with his “film friends” - call it privilege. But, what he did is interesting - he started in the entertainment industry as a small-time TV actor. How many times have you prioritized hanging around people you could learn from?
2/ Build your first craft ⚒️
He spent a lot of time learning & then made his directorial debut with the romantic comedy-drama Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) - it was a blockbuster. But, that does not mean he was always successful - he has a long list of failures → points to taking multiple bets. What’s your first craft & do you push enough to get better at it?
3/ Taking bets 💰
There is a reason why he is called the father of nepotism - he launched the 2nd/3rd generation of Bollywood families. But, don’t you think it’s also a risky business than taking an established celebrity and betting money on only them? No wonder - he signs a 3 movie deal at a set film fee with every actor/actress he launches or ever has. Talk about owning equity.
4/ Owning a category, monopoly honestly💡
If you look closely, Dharma's production and all his co-productions only focus on two or three genres. Action, Massy love & bigger than life stories - typical ‘theatrical experiences’. No matter how much you think it’s cringe → it works $$$
5/ At 51, he is still building 🤯
Just because he owns a production house, he hasn’t stopped perfecting his craft as a director. How many AVP/VP in the startup ecosystem want to get into executional nuance? It’s a clear differentiator.
6/ Pivot for headwinds of OTT ⛵️🍿📺
With OTT eating some level of movie earnings - he understood that what sells in theaters might not sell in OTT. “Dharmatic Productions” allows him to create OTT-specific content & sell it to players like Amazon Prime & Netflix. The movies released here will never be screened in a cinema - by design. How many times have you reflected on your career and built new leverage?
7/ Positioning - staying relevant ☕️
Do you think he does so many seasons of Coffee with Karan for that episode fee? Hell no - it’s classic being on top of the mind for audiences. Cause movie releases are once or twice a year, you can’t be part of pop culture with such low frequency. As an operator, what are you doing to be discovered for? That’s all for now.
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What is the working behind 3000Cr figure? Assuming Dharma’s revenue comes from largely two sources- a. Future movies+OTT content they produce b. Loyalties on past content. A minor source might be distribution rights for non-Dharma movies like they did with some south Indian movies.