A Rs 480 crore jump in a year, driven largely by the reported Dharma stake sale to Adar Poonawalla, pushes Johar past Bachchan into fourth place.
Karan Johar has jumped a rank on the Hurun India Rich List, and the numbers behind it are doing most of the talking.
In the 2024 edition, Johar was valued at Rs 1,400 crore, sitting fifth among Bollywood's wealthiest, behind Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Hrithik Roshan and Amitabh Bachchan. Bachchan, at Rs 1,600 crore, had a Rs 200 crore cushion over him.
That cushion is gone. In the latest edition, Johar's estimated wealth has climbed to Rs 1,880 crore, a rise of Rs 480 crore, or roughly 34 per cent in a single year. Bachchan's fortune, meanwhile, has moved to Rs 1,630 crore, up just Rs 30 crore, about 1.9 per cent.
Run the math and the gap hasn't just closed, it's flipped. Johar now sits Rs 250 crore ahead of Bachchan and has swapped places with him on the list, fifth to fourth, fourth to fifth.
What moved the needle
Dharma Productions remains the company tied to Johar's valuation on Hurun's list, and the period between the two editions covers what Bollywood Hungama describes as his reported sale of a 50 per cent stake in Dharma to Adar Poonawalla for $119 million. That deal, if the reported figures hold, would explain a big chunk of the jump on its own, turning years of speculation about monetising the studio into an actual transaction with a number attached.
Johar's other ventures, Dharma's streaming arm Dharmatic, a hospitality business and the jewellery label Tyaani, get a mention too, though Dharma Productions is the entity Hurun has attached to his listing.
Bachchan's case is the flip side of the same story. His wealth hasn't shrunk. It's grown every year for a while now, built on decades of film, endorsement and property income rather than any single transaction. There's just nothing in his 2025 numbers that looks like a deal the size of Johar's stake sale, which is why a modest Rs 30 crore rise was enough to see him overtaken.
Worth noting, the top of the list moved plenty elsewhere too. Shah Rukh Khan's wealth reportedly surged further ahead, and Juhi Chawla recorded a sharp rise of her own, both changes that make the rankings this year look nothing like last year's.
For Johar, the headline number is straightforward. Rs 1,400 crore to Rs 1,880 crore, fifth to fourth, in twelve months. Whether that pace holds next year probably depends on what Dharma does with the rest of its cap table, and on whether Poonawalla's involvement shows up again in Hurun's 2026 workings.
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.