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Dharma Productions is an Indian production company established by Yash Johar in 1976. As of 2017, the company has produced 42 Bollywood films, including four that are yet to be released. A large number of these films were co-produced with companies such as UTV Motion Pictures, Red Chillies Entertainment and Fox Star Studios.
Dharma Productions' first release came in 1980 with the Raj Khosla-directed Dostana, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha and Zeenat Aman, which was a commercial success. However, their subsequent releases, Duniya (1984) and Muqaddar Ka Faisla (1987) performed poorly at the box office. Their first release of the 1990s, the Bachchan-starring thriller Agneepath (1990) garnered critical acclaim but was a commercial failure. The company's next releases were the thriller Gumrah (1993) and the comedy Duplicate (1998), both directed by Mahesh Bhatt. In 1998, Yash Johar's son, Karan Johar made his directorial debut with the coming-of-age romantic drama Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Rani Mukerji and Salman Khan. The film was the highest-grossing Bollywood film of 1998, and established Dharma Productions as a leading production company in India. Their subsequent releases, the ensemble family melodrama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), the tear-jerking romantic drama Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003) and the musical romantic drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), all starring Khan, were popular among the Indian diaspora worldwide and emerged as top-grossing Hindi films in overseas sales.
From 2008 onwards, in addition to directorial ventures from Karan Johar, the company introduced several new directors, including Ayan Mukerji, Punit Malhotra, Karan Malhotra, and Shakun Batra. The romantic comedy Dostana (2008) was the first mainstream Hindi film to take a homosexual storyline. In 2012, Karan Johar directed the college romance Student of the Year, which marked the debut of actors Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. The following year, the company co-produced the critically acclaimed drama The Lunchbox, which was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. Dharma Productions' greatest successes in the 2010s came with the social drama My Name Is Khan (2010), the 2012 remake of Agneepath, the romantic comedy-drama Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), the romantic drama 2 States (2014), the family drama Kapoor & Sons (2016), and the romance Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016). The most frequent collaborations of the company have been with the actors Shah Rukh Khan, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Amitabh Bachchan, and Kajol.