diff --git a/tools/gn2bp/gen_android_bp b/tools/gn2bp/gen_android_bp
index c8f964dd91..8794e3e085 100755
--- a/tools/gn2bp/gen_android_bp
+++ b/tools/gn2bp/gen_android_bp
@@ -676,7 +676,7 @@ class BaseActionSanitizer():
 
   # deletes the leading ../../
   def _rebase_directory(self, filename):
-    filename = re.sub('^\.\./\.\./', '', filename)
+    return re.sub('^\.\./\.\./', '', filename)
 
   def get_args(self):
     return self.target.args