There is a lot that could’ve gone wrong about a docuseries that talks about the legacy of the Hindi film industry’s biggest studio — Yash Raj Films — while majorly interviewing the acting stars that made it possible. At a surface level, it looked like a lot of people patting each other’s back. But The Romantics isn’t that at all. It’s a deep dive into the socio-economic conditions that shaped what is perceived as the mainstream Hindi film industry today, and much more while still keeping it entertaining, engaging and relatable.
Smriti Mundhra is a smart filmmaker. The Romantics is her follow-up to Indian Matchmaking, the Netflix series she had created. With interesting perspectives, Mundhra is able to successfully delve into the lives of elites who are little more than concepts or phantoms to the majority of the country’s population. The Romantics tracks the life of Yash Chopra before he could become all that and his life afterwards, despite all of that.
The episodes in The Romantics are divided into four very distinct chapters. The first tracks the life of Yash Chopra from being under the shadows of his brother, the late legendary producer B.R. Chopra, till the time he made it as a director in Bombay on his own. The second episode looks into the elusive Aditya Chopra, who stepped out of his father’s shadow and rule book to make films on his own terms. The third talks about nepotism, how privilege plays a role in the breaks actors get, while the final chapter explores the legacy of the Yash Raj Films studio, Aditya’s refusal to have bigger American names buy them out and the need to have multiple creative heads in a studio that aims to always be relevant.
All these chapters look at the individual lives of the Chopras, but through a macro-lens. This allows for little back-patting and more introspection. How did the economic policies of the 1980s determine the films that were going to be relevant? Why did Amitabh Bachhan turn away from his Angry Young Man avatar? How did the liberalisation policies of the 1990s open up the country to western brands and how did they change the film landscape of the country? It’s an interesting study.
And while there was little you could get out of the film stars on these subjects — apart from, of course, Shah Rukh Khan (and frankly, the stars hardly mattered in the docuseries) — it was the people behind the scenes, such as writer-director Vijay Krishna Acharya, CEO Akshaye Widhani and casting director Shanoo Sharma among many others, who really talked about these changes and tied together, quite beautifully, the timeline of the Chopra legacy.
Of course, the soul and the thread of the entire docuseries was Aditya Chopra himself — the man who is forever reluctant to be in front of the camera. Aditya shines across the episodes. He’s self-aware, intelligent, has a deep understanding of the world around him and with it, the changing audience, and is deeply committed to telling Indian stories the way he imagines they should be seen.
Aditya’s interview is both informative and emotional. You could see the baggage he was carrying — taking forward the legacy his father had created, but at the same time daring to dream bigger and different from his father. And in doing so, creating something for the ages. His honesty makes him such a rootable character, despite us knowing his journey and his eventual failures. He is the heart and mind of Yash Raj Films and that comes through in the docuseries.
One of the most intriguing sections in the documentary is when it talks about the films of the 1980s and why people stopped going to the theaters after the increasing popularity of VHS. Oddly enough, there are parallels with what the Indian cinema industry — or even the global cinema industry at large — is going through today. VHS is being replaced today by the streamers and there is an explosion of stories in films and television but what’s reassuring to watch at least is that despite the decade long setup in the theatrical experience, theatres and the collective movie-watching experience bounced back. Such is the hope even today.
Anything about The Romantics isn’t complete without mentioning Uday Chopra — the one with potential who couldn’t make it. His failure to make a mark as an actor and a Chopra lineage is well explored in the docuseries in a rather objective way, if not nuanced. You feel for Uday as he says he isn’t sure if he’s ever going to make a comeback. Uday Chopra is a producer today having successfully co-produced the Nicole Kidman-starrer Grace of Monaco, among other films under the YRF Entertainment banner in Los Angeles. It was heartwarming to see him talk about the mistakes he has made on the way while not letting go of his sense of humour.
Much of what ‘Bollywood’ — a term that is now understandably shunned by everyone interviewed — is today, stylistically, is defined by the cinema of Yash Chopra. His son takes it forward and reinvents it one film at a time. But to stay relevant in a constantly evolving cinematic landscape, he needs to create something much bigger than something his skill set allows. Hence the need for diversifying its band of producers and directors. Yash Raj Films has been the launchpad for many names and faces that we know today. And it’s something worth celebrating. Sure, nepotism exists and plagues every step of the way. But a change is in sight within the studio walls of Yash Raj (or so documented in the series) and it just needs to speed up and allow more diverse voices to truly elevate the state of filmmaking in the country.
The Romantics is a lovely homage to the Hindi film industry. There have been very few studies on mainstream Indian cinema. Mundhra’s The Romantics is a good start to all of that. Hopefully, in the near future, it’ll prompt more filmmakers to take a much deeper look into the industry, its system, its flaws and how there’s always room to evolve.
