When Shah Rukh Khan danced himself from Hrithik Roshan during K3G, Karan Johar had to deal with ‘negativity’ on set

Karan Johar once revealed that while shooting Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was ‘the easiest thing ever’, there was one major problem: Nobody seemed to be interested in Hrithik Roshan. In his autobiography, An Unsuitable Boy, Karan wrote that Hrithik required hand-holding on the sets of the film, for a variety of reasons.
He revealed that Shah Rukh Khan had experienced some career setbacks around the time, and wasn’t his usual self. He also noted that the Bachchans — Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan — didn’t have an ‘equation’ with him, and that Hrithik was unfairly being projected in the media as Shah Rukh’s successor. His first film, Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai, had been released then, and he had already been given star status. This created a ‘negativity’ on set.

The comparisons to Shah Rukh, Karan wrote, were ‘unfair’ because Hrithik was a newcomer. “It was unfair because he was too junior, and Shah Rukh was already such a big star. But that was a phase when one or two of Shah Rukh’s films had gone wrong and the media had started projecting Hrithik up there. The negativity that crept in was not justified or correct, and it was really sad. I felt Hrithik was the only one during the course of the shooting who needed a little hand-holding. See, the Bachchans didn’t have that equation with him. Shah Rukh was a bit dant at that time because of everything that was happening. Kajol was Team Shah Rukh,” he wrote.
Karan added, “I felt I needed to hold his hand a bit. And we developed a really good friendship. We got close to each other— he was a bit of a lost child in this whole lot. And Hrithik, anyway, is slightly awkward around people. He’s not the most people-friendly person. Now he’s become a lot better.”
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was released in December 2001, and quickly became a box office behemoth. Hrithik remains one of Hindi cinema’s biggest stars, and will next be seen in Vikram Vedha.