Pathaan’s roaring global success, the air of love around Valentine’s Day and Yash Raj Films celebrating its 50th year made for the perfect time for the release of The Romantics – directed by Smriti Mundhra — on Netflix this week. An Academy Award-nominated director of the documentary St. Louis Superman and creator-executive producer of Indian Matchmaking, Mundhra’s aim is to make the film-going audience aware of Yash Chopra’s enduring legacy through Yash Raj Films (YRF) that has been in the business of making films for over five decades.
For The Romantics, Mundhra interviewed 35 film stars — Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Salim Khan, Sooraj Barjatya, Anil Kapoor, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Karan Johar, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Rani Mukerji, Hrithik Roshan, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, and many more. But while the highlight of the four-part docuseries is Aditya Chopra, the torchbearer of the Yash Chopra legacy, The Romantics has a lot more to offer to the Hindi film fan.
Aditya Chopra’s vision for Shah Rukh Khan
Both Shah Rukh and Aditya Chopra reveal how the duo bonded over common interests on the sets of Darr (1993, starring Juhi Chawla and Sunny Deol) behind director Yash Chopra’s back. When Shah Rukh was extremely keen on becoming an action hero, Aditya offered him Dilwale Dulhaliya Le Jayenge, marking his transition into a ‘lover boy’. Shah Rukh shares how he was unsure of doing romance on screen, while on the other end was Aditya who thought Shah Rukh’s eyes had something “that cannot be just wasted on action”.
With that, Shah Rukh kept his action-hero aspirations on the back burner and plunged into DDLJ, becoming the most successful romantic hero on the Indian screen of our times. In Yash Chopra, Shah Rukh had found a father figure and their interactions captured on video give a glimpse into the deep and warm relationship they shared.
The making of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
The old rushes comprising behind-the-scenes moments of DDLJ are indeed special. Aditya Chopra took a fresh approach in many aspects of filmmaking with DDLJ; Yash Chopra would be present on the sets but visibly unhappy with the goings-on. For instance, Aditya made sure his heroine Kajol wore a silk sari instead of a chiffon – a trademark of Yash Raj’s films — which was one of the many ways in which he was trying to make a different film from his father’s. And it’s super fun to watch Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol pull first-time director Aditya’s leg for being uncomfortable in front of the camera.
Some of the other little-known facts include the fight sequence in the climax scene of DDLJ, which was not there in the script but was shot at Shah Rukh’s request, and Kajol narrating how the wind blew from the opposite direction when she had to run into Shah Rukh’s arms in the famous mustard field song sequence.
Yash Chopra’s bond with his wife Pamela
One of the cutest moments from The Romantics comes from the footage of Yash Chopra’s wedding with Pamela, an educated and intelligent woman from Delhi. From not being interested in each other to becoming life partners, the Chopra couple are the ultimate romantics. There are glimpses of his elder brother B.R. Chopra fixing his pagdi and Yash Chopra putting his arms around his newlywed wife for the camera at the wedding.
Interestingly, it was only after his marriage that Yash Chopra stepped out of his brother’s fold to make his own films. For him, Pamela was an equal whose inputs he sought regularly for his work. She is the one who held Yash Raj Films in the background.
