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The Romantics on Netflix is one place where the 3 Khans don’t matter. Aditya Chopra shines

Produced by Yash Raj Entertainment, the four-episode docu-series explores the 50-year grandeur of the ‘House of Chopras’.

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With their new docu-series, The Romantics, Smriti Mundhra and Netflix have accomplished what no one could for three decades. Besides featuring Bollywood’s crème de la crème—such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Karan Johar—it has brought the notoriously reclusive director-producer Aditya Chopra in front of the camera. And it is worth the 217-minute runtime.

To the uninitiated, Chopra has never given a TV interview, skips glitzy filmy parties, and has remained cloistered in the Yash Raj studios in Mumbai—away from the most storied and photographed film industry in India.

After Indian Matchmaking (2020) and Never Have I Ever (2020), Mundhra has donned the director’s hat for a third time with The Romantics. Produced by Yash Raj Entertainment, the four-episode docu-series—The Boy from Jalandhar, Prodigal Son, The New Guard, and Legacy —explores the 50-year grandeur of the ‘House of Chopras’, delving deep into the lives of Yash Chopra and his sons, Aditya and Uday.

“I wanted to remind people of why we love cinema in a non-cynical way,” Mundhra said during a recent interview. And, she, much like Yash Raj Films’ Pathaan (2023), managed to reiterate the idea of India YRF films often endorse: Inclusive, secular and full of love.


Also read: Aditya Chopra is no longer a rumour. He is about to turn real in Netflix’s The Romantics


Exploring Yash Chopra’s iconic style

From his first directorial, Dhool Ka Phool (1959), to his last, Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012), the series opens with Yash’s brand of cinema. It explores how the veteran director nudged Bollywood from a rugged, action-oriented industry to one giving precedence to love, romance and emotion.

And just as you are swimming in heaps of nostalgia with classics like Silsila (1981), Kabhie Kabhie (1976), Chandni (1989), and Lamhe (1991), his firstborn and the torchbearer of Yash Raj Films enters the scene.

As Leonardo Dicaprio says in Django Unchained, “You had my curiosity, now you have my attention,” Aditya dropped the invisibility cloak to emerge as the ‘leading man’ of a series celebrating YRF.

Despite a barrage of film stars parading on screen, from the three Khans to new-age superstars like Ayushmann Khurrana, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, and Katrina Kaif, the only one you want to hear is Aditya. And he has a lot to say—be it about his father’s legacy, his interest in films, his understanding of the film business, nepotism, and the potential heirs of one of the biggest film production companies in the country.

The series chronicles the time Yash stepped away from his brother B.R. Chopra’s shadow to make it on his own, and steadily explores how he built YRF from ground zero.

In the 1980s, when the Hindi film industry was repackaging the same template of action films, Yash took a bet on romance with films like Silsila and Chandni. His wife, Pamela Chopra, also credited as the writer of Kabhie Kabhie, helped him create female characters quite differently from his contemporaries. The women in his films—while looking drop-dead gorgeous in clingy chiffon sarees and dancing effortlessly in magnificent locales—had a distinct voice that rarely played second fiddle to the ‘hero’.

“I think Kabhie Kabhie was an art film. An experiment in romance. But it had the biggest star cast [Amitabh Bachchan, Raakhee, Shashi Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman, Rishi Kapoor, and Neetu Singh] possible at the time. So people thought I was making a commercial film,” said Yash in an archival interview detailing his experiences while making the film.


Also read: Bhediya to Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, ‘horror-comedy’ built a loyal fanbase in 2022


When the heir-apparent took over

As the custodian of YRF changes with the ‘prodigal son’ taking the hot seat, the series sheds light on how Aditya wanted to create a film kingdom of his own, devoid of co-producers, foreign studios, or distributors. In one of the scenes, he recalls telling his father that he would only direct a film the day Yash can put 100 per cent money into it. “I don’t want anyone to own my film,” he says. The rest is history.

While the series is a celebration of the House of Chopras, Aditya also addressed some burning questions on nepotism and the way ahead for YRF. He holds his younger brother as an example of the failure of nepotism in Bollywood. Despite coming from one of India’s most influential and successful film families, Uday could not make it as an actor solely because the audience did not accept him.

Aditya’s vision for YRF’s future is to cultivate and nurture newer voices in the form of a new crop of creative producers (like Maneesh Sharma).

At one point, Aditya recalls how Shah Rukh was sceptical about signing Diwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge as he wanted to become an action hero instead of a romantic one. But even before the film went on floors, Aditya had a clear vision for ‘King Khan’. He is “Every mother’s son, every sister’s brother, every college girl’s fantasy,” he said.

But Shah Rukh held on to the grudge of Aditya never casting him as an action hero. It is safe to assume that with Pathaan’s historic success, Shah Rukh must be the happiest man. Thanks to Aditya Chopra.

(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)

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With their new docu-series, The Romantics, Smriti Mundhra and Netflix have accomplished what no one could for three decades. Besides featuring Bollywood’s crème de la crème—such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Karan Johar—it has brought the notoriously reclusive...The Romantics on Netflix is one place where the 3 Khans don't matter. Aditya Chopra shines