The year was 1999 and an actor-turned-filmmaker was battling financial crisis. He had come close to bankruptcy after a couple of films that did not work at the box office in the mid-90s and had no backers for his next ambitious project. In the end, he had to mortgage his house and car to make the film. The end result was a blockbuster that nobody saw coming. Yet, the troubles were far from over for this filmmaker.
The filmmaker who mortgaged his house for a film
Rakesh Roshan was the actor-turned-director who was then reeling from the failure of Koyla. By the end of the decade, he was working to launch his son Hrithik in a revenge drama. But after Koyla, he had limited means to fund the film and not many financiers who believed in him. As a result, the filmmaker mortgaged his house and car to fund the film. Kaho Na Pyaar Hai eventually released in 2000 and was a blockbuster. It earned Rs 80 crore at the box office and was the second highest-grossing Indian film of the year behind Mohabbatein.
When Rakesh Roshan defied Dawood Ibrahim’s men
After the success of Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, Rakesh Roshan came under the radar of the underworld. Men from the gang of Dawood Ibrahim threatened the filmmaker with dire consequences if he did not pay them extortion. However, Rakesh Roshan snubbed them. In the end, the filmmaker was shot at by gangsters and he barely survived, spending weeks in hospital battling life and death. Roshan did recover to return to filmmaking and even gave more hits in Koi Mil Gaya and the Krrish series.
Hrithik Roshan’s net worth
Kaho Na Pyaar Hai was the film that launched Hrithik Roshan in Bollywood and made him an overnight star. The actor has since gone on to be one of the most successful stars in Hindi cinema history with a dozen hits under his belt. He has also turned entrepreneur through his fashion brand HRX. These things have made him India’s richest star kid with a reported net worth of Rs 3100 crore.
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