Moving beyond red carpets and film sets, Karan Johar spoke at length about how stars today are increasingly stepping into the role of entrepreneurs \u2014 and why equity structures differ from deal to deal. In an exclusive conversation with Sarthak Ahuja, the filmmaker offered a candid look at the business mechanics behind celebrity brand endorsements and equity partnerships.<\/p>\n
![\"Karan](\"https:\/\/media5.bollywoodhungama.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Karan-Johar-breaks-down-celebrity-equity-deals-620.jpeg\")
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Karan Johar talks ownership, equity and the business of stardom; \u201cEach deal is different\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt differs from deal to deal, association to association. When you are starting at the top \u2013 creating a brand, giving it your time, and energy, then you can\u2019t have just sweat equity or 2-3%. It should be much larger. But if it\u2019s already set up and already successful, and you come on board to contribute to it, then of course sweat equity or a tinier percentage can be given to you. Because then, it\u2019s already staged and set up. But, if you\u2019re at the onset, if you\u2019re there right at the beginning of the brand like Alia (Bhatt) and Edamama, Super You and Ranveer (Singh) \u2013 these started like right at the top, at the beginning \u2013 then you have to have a larger percentage.\u201d<\/p>\n Johar emphasised that the stage at which a celebrity joins a venture significantly impacts the size of their stake. When a star is involved from inception \u2014 shaping the vision, lending credibility and driving early traction \u2014 the equity must reflect that level of participation.<\/p>\n He further elaborated on what he considers a realistic equity range in such partnerships. \u201cAs for how much it should be, it can range depending on the strength of the brand, the reach, the growth year on year, the potential business plan \u2013 based on everything, it could range from 10 to 20 – 25%, rarely have I seen it be more than that. I mean when its 50% then I wonder where that\u2019s going because then the question is what\u2019s in it for the founder. So, 25 – 30% is the upper end that I have heard of by far where there is huge participation levels \u2013 that is the ceiling.\u201d<\/p>\n Interestingly, Johar also revealed that he holds quieter stakes in businesses that align with his personal brand. \u201cAs for sweat equity or tiny percentage, I also have a lot of sweat equity in places where I\u2019m doing it in such a subtle way you won\u2019t even know that I have equity in these. For example, I have a tinier percentage in the restaurant business because that was set up by that partner. I know lifestyle is a part of my reputation and I deeply believe in that entire brand. So, it depends on where you came. If you came in after the place was set up, the logistics was set up, infrastructure, and then if you came in to add value as a lifestyle expert, then you come in because it is something you believe in. But it\u2019s all different. Each deal is different from the other.\u201d<\/p>\n As more Indian film stars diversify into entrepreneurship, Johar\u2019s insights underline a key takeaway \u2014 equity isn\u2019t one-size-fits-all. Timing, contribution and long-term vision ultimately determine how much skin a celebrity truly has in the game.<\/p>\n Also Read<\/strong>: Karan Johar on the future of his partnership with Adar Poonawalla, \u201cI am sure at some point he is looking for an exit because\u2026\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Catch us for latest Bollywood News<\/a>, New Bollywood Movies<\/a> update, Box office collection<\/a>, New Movies Release <\/a>, Bollywood News Hindi<\/a>, Entertainment News<\/a>, Bollywood Live News Today<\/a> & Upcoming Movies 2026<\/a> and stay updated with latest hindi movies only on Bollywood Hungama.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.bollywoodhungama.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Moving beyond red carpets and film sets, Karan Johar spoke at length about how stars today are increasingly stepping into the role of entrepreneurs \u2014 and why equity structures differ from deal to deal. In an exclusive conversation with Sarthak Ahuja, the filmmaker offered a candid look at the business mechanics behind celebrity brand endorsements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2304835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[26668,314397,380282,446522,446523,434795,386926,354535,350265],"class_list":["post-2304834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-bollywood","tag-brand","tag-brand-ambassador","tag-brand-endorsement","tag-celebrity-brand-endorsement","tag-celebrity-endorsement","tag-equity","tag-features","tag-karan-johar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Karan-Johar-talks-ownership-equity-and-the-business-of-stardom.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2304834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2304836,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304834\/revisions\/2304836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2304835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2304834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2304834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2304834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}BOLLYWOOD NEWS – LIVE UPDATES<\/h2>\n