diff --git a/charts/pulsar/Chart.yaml b/charts/pulsar/Chart.yaml
index b120ba9..d7fa500 100644
--- a/charts/pulsar/Chart.yaml
+++ b/charts/pulsar/Chart.yaml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ apiVersion: v1
 appVersion: "2.7.4"
 description: Apache Pulsar Helm chart for Kubernetes
 name: pulsar
-version: 2.7.7
+version: 2.7.8
 home: https://pulsar.apache.org
 sources:
 - https://github.com/apache/pulsar
diff --git a/charts/pulsar/templates/bookkeeper-cluster-initialize.yaml b/charts/pulsar/templates/bookkeeper-cluster-initialize.yaml
index 66ec77b..9f9f33a 100644
--- a/charts/pulsar/templates/bookkeeper-cluster-initialize.yaml
+++ b/charts/pulsar/templates/bookkeeper-cluster-initialize.yaml
@@ -69,6 +69,9 @@ spec:
                 {{- end }}
                 bin/bookkeeper shell initnewcluster;
             fi
+            {{- if .Values.extraInitCommand }}
+              {{ .Values.extraInitCommand }}
+            {{- end }}
       {{- if and .Values.rbac.enabled .Values.rbac.psp }}
         securityContext:
           readOnlyRootFilesystem: false
diff --git a/charts/pulsar/templates/pulsar-cluster-initialize.yaml b/charts/pulsar/templates/pulsar-cluster-initialize.yaml
index aeab8f3..8f0c0a0 100644
--- a/charts/pulsar/templates/pulsar-cluster-initialize.yaml
+++ b/charts/pulsar/templates/pulsar-cluster-initialize.yaml
@@ -101,6 +101,9 @@ spec:
               --web-service-url-tls https://{{ template "pulsar.fullname" . }}-{{ .Values.broker.component }}.{{ template "pulsar.namespace" . }}.svc.{{ .Values.clusterDomain }}:{{ .Values.broker.ports.https }}/ \
               --broker-service-url pulsar://{{ template "pulsar.fullname" . }}-{{ .Values.broker.component }}.{{ template "pulsar.namespace" . }}.svc.{{ .Values.clusterDomain }}:{{ .Values.broker.ports.pulsar }}/ \
               --broker-service-url-tls pulsar+ssl://{{ template "pulsar.fullname" . }}-{{ .Values.broker.component }}.{{ template "pulsar.namespace" . }}.svc.{{ .Values.clusterDomain }}:{{ .Values.broker.ports.pulsarssl }}/ ;
+            {{- if .Values.extraInitCommand }}
+              {{ .Values.extraInitCommand }}
+            {{- end }}
         volumeMounts:
         {{- include "pulsar.toolset.certs.volumeMounts" . | nindent 8 }}
       volumes:
diff --git a/charts/pulsar/values.yaml b/charts/pulsar/values.yaml
index 71f3154..a69ccfb 100644
--- a/charts/pulsar/values.yaml
+++ b/charts/pulsar/values.yaml
@@ -627,6 +627,9 @@ pulsar_metadata:
   #
   # userProvidedZookeepers: "zk01.example.com:2181,zk02.example.com:2181"
 
+# Can be used to run extra commands in the initialization jobs e.g. to quit istio sidecars etc.
+extraInitCommand: ""
+
 ## Pulsar: Broker cluster
 ## templates/broker-statefulset.yaml
 ##