Director of 'The Romantics' on exploring the evolution of Hindi cinema

More than 25 years ago when Raj and Simranrsquos love in the lanes of London faced patriarchal conservativeness an IndianAmerican teenager felt like someone had mirrored her identity crisis as a young member of the Indian diasporaUnsurprisingly as the fan grew into a filmmaker Smriti Mundhra desired to pay homage to the man behind the film Yash Chopra The result is the Netflix documentary The RomanticsldquoI wanted to explore the films that were important to me and formative in my adolescent yearsrdquo says Los Angelesbased Mundhra To document the legacy of the late filmmaker whose career spanned five decades was anything but easy To top it she wanted to go beyond Chopra and dip into the contribution of his son Aditya who has been at the helm of the production house since his fatherrsquos death in 2013 ldquoI first pitched the idea to YRF Yash Raj Films since they have the archival material behind the scenes footage no one had seen before I was sure that it existed somewhere in a vault So I approached them to tell the story of Hindi cinema history through the lens of Yash Chopra and the studio he built The timing was right because the studio was approaching its 50th anniversary They were in a reflective headspacerdquoThe next hurdle before Mundhra was to be able to schedule meetings with the stars central to Choprarsquos universe ldquoEverybody was willing and eager to talk because of the love and respect they have for him But coordinating actorsrsquo schedules was quite the challengerdquo says the director who eventually managed to get Amitabh Bachchan Shah Rukh Khan Salman Khan Aamir Khan Ranbir Kapoor the late Rishi Kapoor Rani Mukerji Madhuri Dixit and Katrina Kaif among others to be part of the seriesMundhra says that the male archetype in Yash Raj films evolved over the decades She gives the example of Amitabh Bachchan in Deewar and two years later in Kabhi Kabhiemdashrdquodramatically differentrdquoNow she had to convince Aditya Chopra himself Famous for being the recluse he is behind the running joke in Bollywood Aditya Chopra is merely a rumour His love for his father and his work managed to compel him to sit before a camera for an interview for the first time in 20 years ldquoIt was harder than coordinating an interview with Salman Khan honestly But we managed He has so much respect and regard for his father that it was difficult for him to say nordquo Mundhra saysWhile archival interviews of Yash Chopra that find their way into the series take the audience through his perspective on movies and approach to filmmaking Adityarsquos interview delves into how Yash Raj Films turned into the Yash Raj Studio Mundhra found a stark difference between the way the two think the reason perhaps for the directorrsquos realisation that Aditya is the producer Yash Chopra could never be ldquoHe is knowledgeable about the film industry in a way thatrsquos similar to his father but also very different Yash Chopra was all heart passion and love Aditya is all brain he is so smart What they have in common is utmost respect for the audience Their common and ultimate goal is to please the viewerrdquoAnd so the late veteran responded to the sentiment of the time The initial years saw him make movies inspired by a broken postPartition India whether it was Dhool Ka Phool 1959 or Dharamputra 1961 His inclination towards poetry and human vulnerability was evident in the 1973 hit Daag which was also his first film as independent producer And while he knew that he had found a lifetime companion in romance he reacted to the antiestablishment sentiment in 1975 India by giving the audience Deewar As Chopra evolved so did his hero eventually moving away from the ldquoangry young manrdquo image to the softer sometimes messier individual unafraid to loveSmrithi MundraAditya picked up from where his father left off and took it a notch higher when he made Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge bringing to screen a hero who was desired by women and whom men aspired to be likeThis progression is what makes Hindi cinema unique thinks Mundhra ldquoIt was interesting for me to see how the male archetype evolved over the course of the studiorsquos filmography from say Amitabh Bachchan in Deewar to him two years later in Kabhi Kabhiemdashdramatically different And then in 2015 you have Ayushmann Khurrana in Dum Laga Ke Haisha The idea of what a leading man or leading lady should be is constantly evolving film after film generation after generation And you see lots of unexpected heroes and heroines along the way which I really love about Hindi cinemardquo she says adding that it was ldquoincrediblerdquo to speak to perhaps the biggest of Yash Raj heroes Shah Rukh Khan ldquoHe looked at Yash Chopra as a father figure They were extremely close And I think therersquos still a bit of sadness in Khan that hersquos no longer with us Dare I say I think he misses him I donrsquot want to project too much but I think therersquos a special bond between the Chopra family and him Obviously their fates are intertwined too Shah Rukhrsquos career is closely linked with YRF and its success Itrsquos like theyrsquove grown up together the studio and the starrdquoAnd while the hero was at the centre of it all Chopra was faithful to portraying female desire aspiration and dilemma He didnrsquot view the womanrsquos identity as one derived from the actions of men but rather made it one nurtured by agency and the ownership of her aesthetics and fallacies Both female film stars and women viewers wanted to be Yash Chopra heroines ldquoThere are ways in which he portrayed his female characters with respect for their desires and wants I think those films were ahead of their time He was sensitive to a womanrsquos point of view which I donrsquot think too many filmmakers from his generation can claimrdquo she says adding that while movies by Chopra his son and the studio itself have been criticised for lacing stories with lavishness that only the privileged can afford their complex themes provocative and progressive reflections on relationships and love made them stand the test of time ldquoHe would package them like big multi starrers with beautiful costumes So you didnrsquot realise immediately that he was gradually shifting your idea of what conventional love and marriage isrdquoMundhra rates her interview with the late Rishi Kapoor as one of her next favourites She shot with him and his actor wife Neetu Kapoor a month before the veteran passed in April 2020 ldquoThere was some energy that day in the room when we were talking we talked for more than three hours He wanted to keep talking and had so many memories to share He offered great insight It was a magical conversationrdquo she recallsThe documentary appears to have satiated the fan and filmmaker in Mundhra She now hopes that the experience does to the audience what it did for her bring them closer to the movies ldquoWhat we really want as humans and especially as Indians is to remember that we are passionate about cinema Itrsquos so central to our culture history and tradition itrsquos a part of our contribution to the world and people are excited to be reminded of this and donrsquot like to feel cynical when they think of Hindi films or BollywoodrdquoAlso ReadlsquoHeeramandirsquo tribute to lsquoMughaleAzamrsquo and lsquoPakeezahrsquo Sanjay Leela Bhansali