16 May 2025 : The year was 2019. COVID-19 did not exist yet (for a few more months). Bollywood was thriving, and nepotism was just a buzzword that did not yet derail careers. But it was all around the corner. And it began with one film, one that never even went on the floors and yet changed the landscape of Hindi cinema. Touted as the most expensive Bollywood film ever, this movie starred seven big names and was helmed by the biggest director around. Karan Johar’s Takht was more ambitious than most. But then what became of it?
Bollywood’s most expensive film
In 2019, Karan Johar announced his next directorial after Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Titled Takht, the period drama revolved around the power grab in the Mughal Empire at the end of Emperor Shah Jahan’s reign. The focus of the film would be the two princes – Alamgir (later Aurangzeb) and Dara Shikoh’s fight for the throne. Johar described it as ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham in the medieval times’, eliciting divisive responses. The film featured a blockbuster cast, including Anil Kapoor as Shah Jahan, Vicky Kaushal as Aurangzeb, Ranveer Singh as Prince Dara Shikoh, Kareena Kapoor as Princess Jahanara, and Bhumi Pednekar as Princess Roshanara. Alia Bhatt was cast as Aurangzeb’s wife Dilras Banu, while Janhvi Kapoor was to play Dara Shikoh’s wife Nadira.
As per reports, the film was to be mounted on a massive ₹250-crore budget, the biggest in the history of Hindi cinema at the time. At the time, Thugs of Hindostan ( ₹220 crore) was the most expensive Hindi film. Since then, the record has been broken by Brahmastra and Adipurush. If made on its stipulated budget, Takht would have been even bigger than Baahubali Part One ( ₹180 crore budget) and Pushpa The Rise ( ₹100 crore budget).
What happened to Takht
Takht was set to begin filming in March 2020. The first poster announced a release date of December 2021. However, the COVID-19 pandemic stalled the filming. Still, Karan Johar was optimistic about its revival. Talking about the film, Karan told the press, “That film is a piece of my heart. It’s got two and a half years of my prep work on it. We were preparing to go. I still remember we were starting on April 24 when the pandemic hit us in March. The film was so enormous, voluminous, and complex that it required a thousand workers on site every day. It was that kind of movie.”
However, the backlash Hindi films received post the discourse on Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in June 2020 changed the scenario. Star kids became targets of online trolling, and Karan Johar became the ‘face of nepotism’ online. The intense backlash to ‘nepo kids’ became centred around KJo. The fact that Takht had 3 star kids in the lead roles and was Karan’s dream project meant it was an easy target.
Even after things normalised after the lockdowns were lifted, Karan did not revive Takht. The director quit Twitter amid the backlash and lay low for a while. In 2021, he announced another project, which became Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. And slowly, Takht was sent to the back burner, never to be revived. While there is no official word on the film as of 2025, insiders say that Karan is not too keen to revive it anytime soon, at least not with the same cast.
Summary:
Planned as Bollywood’s most expensive film with seven stars, Takht was shelved due to intense online backlash despite surpassing Pushpa and Baahubali in scale.