Karan Johar spent a ‘lot of money’ buying art, artist was later imprisoned: ‘They have no value now, can’t even sell’ | Bollywood News
3 min readNew DelhiFeb 11, 2026 08:45 PM IST
- Karan Johar bought expensive watches and paintings in the early 2000s.
- Karan Johar regrets buying those paintings as the artist is now in jail and the artwork has no value now.
- Karan Johar had previously shared that his father made fun of him for buying a Rs 5 lakh painting.
Just like the characters in his movies, Karan Johar lives an extravagant life, and in a recent interview, where he spoke in detail about his fashion, the filmmaker was asked about the purchases he regrets. Karan immediately remembers that he bought a lot of expensive and luxury watches during the 2000s but since he does not wear any watches, he gave them all away. He also recalled acquiring paintings of a certain artist and shared that those paintings lost their value when the artist was given a prison sentence.
Talking about the watch collection he once had, Karan shared with The Hollywood Reporter India, “All the watches I bought in the 2000s… I regret buying all of those. I don’t wear watches. I spent a lot of money and gave them away because I don’t wear watches. I regret all that.”
He then spoke about acquiring art of an artist, who is now in jail. “And then there was an artist’s painting that I spent a lot of money buying. He is in jail now,” he shared and added that when he asked about the current price of that piece, he learnt that it was valued at zero. “At one point I bought five of his pieces and now he is in jail, so they have no value. So I regret that as well,” he said.
Karan Johar’s father Yash Johar questioned his judgement while buying art
During his show Koffee with Karan, Karan had previously shared that he once became an “art connoisseur for no reason.” He shared that more than two decades ago, when he didn’t know much about art, he only knew that SH Raza was a renowned painter so he bought a painting worth Rs 5 lakh from the artist, which was beyond his father Yash Johar’s comprehension.
“Not that I knew anything, but I knew that Raza was a huge artist at that time. He was a big brand at that time. My father was a very simple man and I asked him for Rs 5 lakh to buy an artwork from Raza. And he was like ‘Rs 5 lakh? There’s art for Rs 5 lakh?’” he recalled. Once Yash Johar saw what Karan had purchased, he gave his candid and frank opinion. “My father has said, and I don’t want to say exactly what he said and he said it in Punjabi. But he said, ‘Yeh toh setting vale bhi kar skate hain, iske maine Rs 5 lakh kyu diye (Even set designers could’ve made this, why have I paid Rs 5 lakh for this)?” He mentioned that the artwork was now 50 times its original value.
