Farah Khan recalls how dad lost everything overnight as film flopped, family had Rs 30 when he died: ‘We were paupers’ | Bollywood News
5 min readChennaiMar 17, 2026 09:37 PM IST
“I am not a nepo kid,” Farah Khan said in a recent interaction with Ranveer Allahbadia. During the interaction, Farah narrated her entire childhood and her father, filmmaker Kamran Khan’s riches-to-rags story after his film Aisa Bhi Hota Hai massively flopped at the box office, leading to her family becoming poor overnight. Farah is the daughter of Kamran and former actor menaka Irani. She is the niece of actor Daisy Irani and scriptwriter Honey Irani.
“We became paupers,” she said talking about the financial hardships the family faced, adding, “I am not a nepo kid. My dad died a pauper. When he died, he had Rs 30 in his pocket.”
Farah also spoke about how her father became an alcoholic after the setback. “As the sun went down, we used to start shaking because we knew now anything can happen during the night after my father would hit the bottle. It was riches to rags because my dad was doing extremely well. He got ambitious and he wanted to make a colour film with a bigger star and that’s where he spent all his money. He mortgaged the house and everything. That one film, it released on Friday, and by Sunday, we were poor, reverse 5-6 years old.” Film production can involve high financial risk, and a single project’s failure can have cascading effects. Farah Khan’s account reflects her personal experiences growing up in a film family facing financial and emotional challenges
After that, Farah shared that her father was so ashamed of their financial state that he refused to go out and “didn’t work for 13 years.” She also recalled that her parents separated shortly after the film’s failure. “We could not call people at home for years. My mom had left, and we could not tell people that my parents were separated because it was a different time.”
Farah spoke about how she was sidelined in her house because her parents wanted a son. “Because my dad was not a successful director, so I always wanted to be a director. Also, my childhood was all about films. We used to discuss films and go and watch a lot of films,” she said. She added, “In Main Hoon Na, Amrita’s character came from me because my dad wanted a son and the minute Sajid Khan was born, I was sidelined. Though I know he loved me, but the attention went to the son. So, the wanting to be the alpha female comes from there.” Preference for male children has been a documented social issue in parts of India, though attitudes have evolved over time.
Farah, who made her name as one of the most prominent choreographers in the Hindi film industry, went on to direct Main Hoon Na, Om Shanti Om and Happy New Year with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead. She also made Tees Maar Khan with Akshay Kumar which was not succesful at that time but has become popular since. She also runs a popular vlog now with her cook Dileep.
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Farah also recalled how her mother took her and Sajid Khan to live with her sister Honey Irani, who was writer Javed Akhtar’s first wife. “When Honey and Javed got married, my father gave them a 1BHK apartment to live in because Javed uncle said that he cannot get married because he doesn’t have a home. Later, we stayed at Javed uncle’s house for a long time when my mother walked out with Sajid and me after separating from my father.”
Farah spoke about her mother working at one of Mumbai’s most iconic hotels at that time as a housekeeping supervisor. Farah shared that this hotel was a go-to place for Bollywood celebrities. “She worked as a housekeeping supervisor there. She went to every room to see if the cleaning was done properly. At that time, my mom used to do night and day shifts and she was always irritable, and because of that, we didn’t have a loving relationship.”
Farah talked about starting work in the film industry as a choreographer at a young age and how she bought a fridge with her first earnings. “First thing I was bought a fridge for Rs 4000.” She added, “I had to leave college because I didn’t have attendance. My mother gave me a lot of grief because she was heartbroken, so after 3–4 years, I got my degree.”
DISCLAIMER: Experts note that alcohol use disorder can significantly affect behaviour and family environments, and often requires medical and psychological support.
