A US-based content creator recently revealed that working on Shah Rukh Khan’s 2003 film Kal Ho Naa Ho was the “worst job” of her career, saying that she was severely underpaid for her work as a set designer.

The 2003 film, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Saif Ali Khan, marked the directorial debut of Nikhil Advani. The American content creator Ash Cantley, however, said that the experience was so bad that she had to switch careers.

Known for her Talk Pop To Me series, a pop culture and celebrity gossip commentary show, Ash said she has two decades of experience working as a TV producer and celebrity executive.

At the TikTok Creator Summit held in New York last week, Ash befriended a creator who is passionate about Bollywood, she recalled in the video. She said that she told him that she had to check her IMDb to look for the “random” Indian film that she had worked on years back. This prompted the creator to say that the film is “like the Titanic of American films”.

“I worked on the film Kal Ho Naa Ho, and it was so bad that I ended up switching careers,” she said.

Kal Ho Na Ho was shot in New York City, USA, and Toronto, Canada, with some parts filmed in India.

“I had such a bad experience on that film that I probably tried to block it out. First of all, I got paid $75 a day, and I’m talking 12 to 17-hour days. I was a set designer, which means I spent most of my time redesigning this diner, inch by inch," she said.

Ash said that the diner was ‘abandoned’ and had ‘so much filth’. “It was the worst job of my life. I was severely underpaid. I’ll never do that again,” she added.

Ash was also allegedly paid less as compared to the male crew members. “I think the men got paid $125. I accepted it because I was young, dumb and desperate to get in the industry. I am not angry about it, in fact, most jobs in production were like that, and we were paid peanuts,” she said.

Netizens have expressed mixed reactions to the video, with several of them questioning why she would accept a job if it didn’t pay well.

Social media influencer Orry criticised Ash for her video. “You can barely scrape 5k views on any reel other than this. Be grateful,” he wrote in the comments section.

“You could have said no to the job if you were unhappy with the pay or if there were so many issues. Also, it doesn’t matter whether it was an indie film or a blockbuster, production houses will always try to save money. You should’ve known your worth. Your experience and position would have gotten you that per hour rate,” a social media user commented.

“That does not make it a bad movie and in the first place why would you agree to do a film if it wasn't well paid,” another said.

An Instagram user came out in defense of her, saying, “Every indian defending that why you did that film because it was her start.

She did a great job and hence the imdb review and she deserves what she worked for. Another day of unpaid labour. What if any of this happens with you? I guess you will ask for better pay rather than defending it.”

As for the comments being sceptical of whether she actually worked on the film, Ash said that she doesn’t have any proof apart from her IMDb page. “Aside from my IMDb, I don’t have any proof. You know why? Because it was taken, like, 20 years ago. We didn’t have phones with cameras back then,” she added.

Produced by Yash Johar under Dharma Productions, Kal Ho Na Ho was written by Karan Johar and Niranjan Iyengar.