Nikkhil Advani reveals many Gen Z viewers want a Chandni Chowk To China sequel: “They saw Akshay Kumar fighting a giant potato and somehow it worked for them”

Nikkhil Advani started his career as an assistant director and then made his first big directorial move with the film *Kal Ho Naa Ho* in 2003, which was a huge success.He went on to direct many important movies and later focused on creating content for OTT platforms.Some of his popular shows include *Mumbai Diaries*, *Freedom at Midnight*, and *The Revolutionaries*.He has also produced shows like *The Empire*, *Rocket Boys*, and *Adhura*, as well as movies such as *Airlift* (2016) and *Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway* (2023), which have been well received.

In a recent interview, Nikkhil shared personal stories about his family moving from Sindh to Mumbai during the Partition and talked about how younger generations are responding to his films.

Nikkhil Advani said that many Gen Z viewers want a sequel to *Chandni Chowk To China*: "They saw Akshay Kumar fighting a giant potato and somehow it worked for them."

After *Kal Ho Naa Ho*, Nikkhil directed *Salaam-E-Ishq* in 2007, followed by *Chandni Chowk To China* in 2009, which starred Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone.

The film didn't get much praise at first, but Nikkhil noted that younger viewers have come to appreciate it, with many asking for a sequel.

He told *Mumbai Mirror*, "The people asking me for a *Chandni Chowk* sequel today were four years old when it was released (laughs).

They didn't care about the story structure; they just saw Akshay Kumar [who plays a chef in the film] fighting a giant potato and somehow it worked for them."

In the same interview, Nikkhil shared that in the summer of 1947, just before the Partition, his great-grandfather moved his whole family from Sindh to Mumbai, before Sindh became part of Pakistan.

He also mentioned that during the journey, his grandfather carried a heavy money belt around his waist.

The money wasn't his own.According to the article, "He worked for Habib Bank, which was moving its headquarters to Karachi at Muhammad Ali Jinnah's request." So he was given the task of delivering the cash to its Bombay branch, and his grandfather "handed over every rupee."