The bombshell was ultimately revealed by Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath at the end of his 2-hour podcast with Elon Musk in April 2025: the cost of the podcast was 7 crore jaws dropped. What began as an ordinary conversation ended up being one of the most costly podcasts episodes in India. The viewers enthusiastically enjoyed the episode but the closing bill has shocked everyone. This is the complete breakdown of the destination of every rupee.
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- Private jet fuel and landing charges of Musk in his Gulfstream G650 aircraft between his home in Austin and Bengaluru and back – 2.1 crore rupees.
- 48-hour security detail (US secret service level security team flown in Los Angeles and local backup [NSG]) – 1.25 crore.
- Nano studio with soundproofing (one time construction), acoustic panels imported and zero-echo glass inside a five star resort room – 85 lakh.
- Starlink satellite uplink + dedicated 10 Gbps fiber line of 8K live streaming on zero lag – ₹42 lakh.
- Tesselus Cybertruck and Optimus robot rights to appear on set (rental + insurance) 68 lakh.
- 42-person crew (flown in the US) (cameramen, lighting professionals, old sound-guy of Joe Rogan) 71 lakh.
- Luxury accommodation of the whole Musk team (12 suites at a private resort 4 nights) ₹38 lakh.
- Last minute relocation and change of location between Goa and Bengaluru due to weather problems (additional logistics and cancellations) 29 lakh.
- Tesla, SpaceX and xAI teams will need to pay legal and NDA charges to have all questions approved by law – 19 lakh.
- Hollywood (color grading, Dolby Atmos mix, AI noise removal) post-production- 33 lakh.
On the total: 7 crores and 71 lakhs.Nikhil would later say on social media, I thought podcasts were cheap. It turns out that there is another cost attached to interviewing the richest man on earth! The episode surpassed 180 million views during the first week, although despite the sponsorships and advertising, some say the ROI is negative. Nevertheless, Nikhil describes it as the best 7 crore marketing that Zerodha probably could not conceive of doing without: some of them refer to it as madness, others state that the branding was worth all the money. The commentary was, in a word, succinct: Bro sold his kidney 2 hours of Elon content and we viewed it free of charge.
