‘We became paupers’: Farah Khan on how one film failure ruined her family overnight

“I am not a nepo kid,” said Farah Khan during a recent interaction with Ranveer Allahbadia. She reflected on her difficult childhood and her father Kamran Khan’s dramatic fall after Aisa Bhi Hota Hai failed commercially. Farah, daughter of Kamran Khan and former actor Menaka Irani, and niece of Daisy Irani and Honey Irani, said the setback pushed the family into severe financial hardship almost overnight.

“We became paupers,” she said, recalling, “When my dad died, he had just Rs 30 in his pocket.” She also revealed how the failure deeply affected him, leading to alcoholism and years of withdrawal from work. “It released on Friday, and by Sunday, we were poor,” she said, describing how her father had mortgaged everything for the film.

Farah added that her father, ashamed of their financial condition, stopped working for 13 years, and her parents eventually separated. She shared that growing up, she often felt sidelined as her parents had hoped for a son, a theme she later explored in her film Main Hoon Na.

Despite these struggles, Farah built a successful career as one of Bollywood’s top choreographers and filmmakers, directing hits like Om Shanti Om and Happy New Year starring Shah Rukh Khan. She also directed Tees Maar Khan with Akshay Kumar, which gained popularity over time despite an initial lukewarm response.

She recalled how her mother worked tirelessly as a housekeeping supervisor at a well-known Mumbai hotel to support the family, often taking on long shifts. Farah began working early in the film industry as a choreographer and used her first earnings to buy a refrigerator, marking a small but significant step in rebuilding their lives.