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Bollywood bigwigs pay homage to Yash Chopra in Netflix series

SRK, Karan Johar, Katrina Kaif, Amitabh Bachchan speak about why Yash Chopra is a legend in Netflix’s docu-series The Romantics! Preview feature by columnist Riccha Grrover for Asian Lite International.

Iconic director Yash Chopra’s impact on Hindi cinema is an everlasting one and Netflix pays tribute to the legend and Yash Raj Films’ cultural impact on India for the past 50 years in a new docu-series The Romantics which is releasing globally on Feb 14th!

The docu-series will see the Hindi film industry come together to celebrate Yash Chopra. The mega-stars of the Indian entertainment industry like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, etc will pour their hearts out to speak about how the legend’s work shaped their cinematic vision!

Yash Chopra is celebrated widely for his envelope-pushing romantic films like Silsila, Lamhe, Kabhi Kabhie, Veer-Zaara, Dil To Pagal Hai, Chandni, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, etc. SRK, who has been directed by Yash Chopra four times,talks about how mesmerized he was watching those films. He says, “As a professional, if I would have to spend 100 days on a set, I would rather do it on a Yash Chopra set than anybody else’s.”

Karan Johar, who knew Yash Chopra closely and is also widely known for his cult romantic films, says, “I just became obsessed by watching his films and I felt that who is this man, who is constantly responsible for mesmerizing me as a child.”

Meanwhile, superstar Katrina Kaif loved how Yash Chopra portrayed his heroines, who were all independent-minded, forward-thinking, self-reliant, and strong. Yash Chopra’s heroines contributed to how women were projected on screen by the Indian film industry. She says, “The way that Yashji portrayed his heroines was so dignified, graceful, and layered.”

Amitabh Bachchan, who has collaborated with the icon for landmark films like Deewar, Silsila, Kabhi Kabhie, Trishul, Kaala Patthar and Veer Zaara, calls Yash Chopra a true master of cinema in The Romantics, given how brilliant he was with diverse genres!

Amitabh says, “We shot for Deewar for several months within ten or fifteen days. We started Kabhi Kabhie suddenly to shift to an environment which is full of flowers and mountains and snow but the ease with which he just adapted to that was just quite remarkable!”

The Romantics has been directed by Oscar & Emmy-nominated filmmaker Smriti Mundhra, who returns to Netflix after the phenomenal success of Indian Matchmaking and the Never Have I Ever franchise.

Netflix, one of the world’s leading entertainment services, in this four-part docu-series, will also feature 35 leading personalities from the film industry, who have closely worked with YRF through its 50-year glorious existence.

Interestingly, the reclusive head of the iconic Yash Raj Films, Aditya Chopra, has also recorded his first on-camera interview for ‘The Romantics’! Hearing him share insights about YRF and the Hindi film industry in this docu-series would be a huge highlight for the film fraternity, cinephiles & Hindi cinema audience at large.

YRF is currently at an all-time high as their latest release Pathaan, the fourth film of YRF’s Spy Universe is breaking all records at the global box office. Pathaan is now the number one Hindi film worldwide and has become the biggest all-time blockbuster in the history of Hindi cinema. YRF is home to some of the biggest blockbusters that Indian cinema has ever witnessed like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, War, Sultan, Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger Zinda Hai, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Mohabbatein.

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Yash Chopra banner not reaching up to audience expectations?

‘Samrat Prithviraj’, despite being made tax free in three states, has netted Rs 68 crore since its release on June 3 this year. Its budget? Rs 150 crore…writes SOURISH BHATTACHARYYA

When Ranbir Kapoor appeared on screens after four years in Karan Malhotra’s ‘Shamshera’, that too along with the flawed star he played in the blockbuster ‘Sanju’, audience expectations were sky high. But at the end of its first week on a record 5,250 screens worldwide, it has not even been able to surpass a collection of Rs 40 crore.

And it seems to have not much of a chance, thanks to the pincer attack of the John Abraham-Arjun Kapoor-starrer ‘Ek Villain Returns’, which is expected to wrap up its first weekend with Rs 24 crore, according to the trade media, and Kannada actor Kichcha Sudeep-led 3D film ‘Vikrant Rona’, which has garnered Rs 37-38 crore.

For Ranbir, who’s now better known as ‘Mr Alia Bhatt’, ‘Shamshera’ is the sixth flop of his career, starting with his debut film with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, ‘Saawariya’ (2007), but for the banner behind the Rs 150-crore period action drama, Yash Raj Films (YRF), it will be the fourth flop in succession.

The production house, whose brand name carries the imprimatur of one of the most successful hitmakers, Yash Chopra, and is helmed by the late producer-director’s son, Aditya Chopra, has had a bad run ever since Siddhant Chaturvedi’s ‘Bunty Aur Babli 2’ (despite the appearance of one of the original hit’s stars — Rani Mukherjee — with Saif Ali Khan), released on November 19, 2021, could net a measly Rs 12 crore (gross collection less taxes), according to ‘Box Office India.


That is a little more than a quarter of the film’s budget — Rs 45 crore.

Adding insult to injury, in a year when dubbed southern films are making cash as if it is going out of fashion, Ranveer Singh’s
‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’, released on May 13 this year, could net just Rs 16.6 crore, against a budget of Rs 90 crore.

This was Ranveer’s second screen debacle after the much-hyped Cricket World Cup 1983 drama, ’83’, where the actor essayed Kapil Dev, the captain of the victorious Indian team.

Then came what was to be the film that would equal, if not beat, Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘The Kashmir Files’ because it was to appeal to the same constituency — ‘Samrat Prithviraj’. Its lead actor is the pre-Covid hit machine, Akshay Kumar, who was fresh from the middling success of ‘Sooryavanshi’, it was supported by the leading lights of the BJP, and its script, according to its maker Chandraprakash Dwivedi, was in the making for 18 years.

Clearly, the audiences did not relate with a ruler in the distant past, even if he had been elevated to the rank of a ‘Samrat’, who ended up losing to a foreign invader. In the post-Covid world, they were looking for heroes with the brawn and heft of the characters played by Ram Charan and Jr NTR in ‘RRR’ — heroes who took on the mightiest empire of their time and won.

‘Samrat Prithviraj’, despite being made tax free in three states, has netted Rs 68 crore since its release on June 3 this year. Its budget? Rs 150 crore.

Not that YRF isn’t used to its films failing, but it must be remembered that out of its filmography of 65 releases, starting with the Anil Kapoor-Sridevi-starrer ‘Lamhe’ (1991), 11 have been blockbusters, including the iconic ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’, which launched Aditya Chopra as the new hitmaker, and ‘Dhoom 3’, 13 have been hits or superhits, and seven semi-hits, according to Box Office India data.

Still, compared with 31 blockbusters to semi-hits, YRF has logged 34 ‘flops’ or ‘disasters’. Let us crunch the numbers a little more and focus only on the time after the passing of Yash Chopra in 2012.

Our analysis indicates 14 out of the 29 films released from 2012 onwards were in the ‘disaster’, ‘flop’ or ‘below average’ zones, but YRF also rolled out five blockbusters — ‘War’ (released ironically on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary in 2019; Rs 292 crore); ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ (2017; Rs 339 crore); ‘Sultan’ (2016; Rs 301 crore); ‘Dhoom 3’ (2013; 261 crore); and last, ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ (2012; Rs 186 crore). All the earnings cited here are net collections, not inflation adjusted, listed on the Box Office India website.

What should get YRF worried, however, is that it has not had a single hit since ‘War’. Before its post-Covid disastrous run, the last half-way decent success was the Rani Mukherjee-led ‘Mardaani 2’, a low-budget film with a relatively known cast.

It must be making Aditya Chopra nostalgic about the banner’s humongously successful run between 1993 and 2000 with ‘Darr’ (1993), ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ (1995), ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’ (1997) and ‘Mohabbatein’ (2000).

Of these, of course, the unforgettable SRK-Kajol star vehicle, ‘DDLJ’, has made an inflation-adjusted net collection of Rs 461.33 crore, making it the fourth highest-earning Hindi film of all time after ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun’, ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ and ‘Gadar: Ek Prem Katha’.

It is said that it was SRK who revived Yash Chopra’s fortunes with ‘Darr’ and ‘DDLJ’. Will his magic work all over again for the banner with ‘Pathaan’? For the answer, we’ll have to wait for January 25, 2023.

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