The Romantics (2023) s01e02 Episode Script

[interviewer] Tell me about
when you first met Adi.
He was this young.
-Yeah. In Kabhi Kabhie.
-This tall, this young.
He was a baby.
In Kabhi Kabhie, both Adi and Uday,
they were toddlers.
[upbeat music playing]
[Abhishek Bachchan] You have
to understand, when we were children,
and we used to be in and around the set,
Uday and I, who have always been
dear friends, were too busy playing.
I think they were shooting Silsila
in Gulmarg or Sonmarg.
And instead of paying attention to what
was going on, which is what Adi was doing,
Uday and I were busy playing with,
you know, Yash Uncle's latest acquisition
was the first electronic fog machine.
So, you know, while they must have been
shooting some great song of Silsila,
we just spent the day running through it,
'cause we felt like we were in the clouds.
[in Hindi] Where have we come ♪
Walking together like this ♪
-[interviewer in English] What about Adi?
-[Abhishek] Yeah.
[interviewer] What was he like
when he was a child?
Oh, gosh.
Do I have to lie or can I tell the truth?
[whimsical music playing]
I met him as a child
and I did not like him.
At all.
[Abhishek] When we were children,
a whole gang of us,
of almost ten to 15 of us, had a game,
which was weirdly called "cheeni."
And the purpose of the game
is the minute you saw Adi,
you shouted cheeni and ran away.
[chuckling] I hope that summarizes
what Adi was for us.
He was a tyrant.
I think my earliest memory of Adi
was leaning over the balcony
and shouting at us,
because he was trying to work.
[Karan Johar] Now, I used to go
once a year to this birthday party.
And a group of kids,
they were all fans of Adi.
Like, Adi was their team leader.
And they all spoke
in a certain kind of Hindi film language
that I was pretending to not like.
So I would go home
and tell my mom, "I am not going back."
"They are too filmy for me."
[Abhishek] So obviously,
when we had birthday parties,
there was the inevitable dance competition
and, uh, the dance competition
was the domain of two people.
Two rivals. Two opposite sides of style.
[Karan] Adi won every dance competition
year after year after year.
And who was number two to him?
Hrithik Roshan.
So the minute they'd walk into the party,
they'd just be looking
at each other with that stare, you know.
It was almost like a Western showdown.
[Western music playing]
[Hrithik Roshan] It's amazing.
I don't know what happened.
He was supposed to be the one
who grows up and, uh, does those moves.
I… I… I really wish you can cut this
with a video of, uh, of one of his dances,
'cause they were pretty amazing.
Uh, they sometimes did not even look
much like dancing,
but it was still very amazing to watch.
[music distorts and fades]
But he had some kind of self-confidence
that came from, uh, somewhere inside.
Yeah. [chuckles]
[gripping music playing]
[Pamela Chopra] Adi was
so certain what he wanted to do,
that he had to go and see a film
first day, first show.
[Mahen Vakil] He used to go and see
each and every movie.
Good, bad, ugly.
[in Hindi] I asked,
"Adi, why do you watch such movies?"
[in English] He said, "Vakilji,
that is where I learn what not to do."
[Abhishek] His world
revolves around films,
and how they are made,
and why they are made.
Could they be better, could they not?
[Karan] He used to have books in his room,
where he used to write films,
the box office expectation,
his analysis and the eventuality.
Over a series of years,
decades he had done this.
These thick books.
[Hrithik] The whole film was broken down.
Categories and columns and questions.
And then it had
the box office numbers, eventual.
I am talking about when he was like,
I think, 12 or 13 years old.
And he did this over and over again.
[Abhishek] I think
they were plastically wrapped as well.
He was crazy about these things.
[Karan] And I was like, "What a genius,
crazy, obsessive mind he was."
You went close to that, you'd get whacked.
But, you know, you realize
once you become a professional yourself,
that these are the things that he did
that make him the director
and the producer that he is today.
[Karan] He was not,
what we call today, as a nepotistic kid
who just wanted to enjoy
the laurels of his legendary father.
He wanted to create his own empire.
[indistinct chatter]
[captivating music playing]
So, uh, yeah, where do I begin?
[opening theme music playing]
[mellow music playing]
[excited chatter]
[interviewer] I want us to talk
about your love affair with cinema.
[laughs]
-Oh, my God.
-[interviewer] When did it begin?
I think it began
before I even knew it actually.
I think I was just born into it, you know.
And I was very clear,
very early in my life,
that this is what I'm gonna do.
I just loved going to the films.
I loved the smell of popcorn,
the fact that
I used to get to have a cold drink
and there was this,
you know, magical big screen
and it just threw stuff at you.
[upbeat music playing]
[Aditya Chopra] Because, as a person,
he was just so simple,
for a lot of years
of my life I didn't realize
that my father is a very big man.
Till about I was,
I think, eight or nine years old,
I actually thought everybody makes films.
Because I only met film people.
But I… I discovered how relevant,
or how important his work is
once I started to study the masters.
And then, in my own way,
I understood that my dad is also a master.
[gripping music playing]
I think Indian cinema represents Indians.
And Indians, as people,
are people who constantly aspire
to be more than who they are.
I think my dad represented that.
A person who came from nowhere
and when he gets the opportunity,
he wants to show his fellow Indians,
a world which is better.
For years, every Friday, I've gone
and sat in the theater and watched a film
with the audience
that I make the film for.
So I'd like to believe
that I'm one of them.
Like, today is Friday,
after this interview, I'm seeing a film.
And I'm looking forward to it.
If you have the opportunity
to sit with them,
you will know where they laugh,
where they cry,
where they got up, where they booed.
There's no better
learning than that, you know.
I think a lot of my success,
I would attribute to that.
[romantic dance music playing]
[Sooraj Barjatya] My first,
uh, memory of Adi
is clearly [in Hindi] during the screening
of Maine Pyar Kiya.
[in English] And a very shy boy, only 17,
outside a theater, he came,
and, uh, he had
a very grinning smile, that's all.
That time I did not know
[in Hindi] that this was Yashji's son.
[in English] I just clearly remember him.
And I came to know
he loved Maine Pyar Kiya.
[upbeat song playing]
[Sooraj] My second film
Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!,
we had a show at Liberty.
And that show was a disaster.
I came to this office here
and the first phone that came was of Adi.
He saw the picture at Liberty.
And he told me, uh, "Sooraj,
it's a damn good film. Don't worry."
I said, "Adi look at the reaction,
the entire industry is telling me what…"
He said, [in Hindi] "Don't worry.
Can I suggest something?"
[in English] And he's very to the point.
I said, [in Hindi] "Tell me, Adi."
[in English] And he said,
[in Hindi] "Cut these
two and a half songs and it will fly."
[in English] And honestly, it was
in my mind since the last five months that
[in Hindi] it's a mistake.
[in English] And he pinpointed
exactly the two and a half songs,
which I removed the next day.
That is the first memory I have
of the greatness of Aditya Chopra.
[mellow music playing]
[imperceptible]
[upbeat music playing]
[Manmohan Singh] India's development
is of tremendous significance
for the future
of the entire developing world.
To realize our development potential,
we have to unshackle
the human spirit of creativity,
idealism, adventure and enterprise
that our people possess
in abundant measure.
1991 is where, you know, the big
economic liberalization was happening.
[Manmohan] Our economy has to be made
extraordinarily resilient,
if we are to take full advantage
of the opportunities
and to minimize the risks associated
with the increasing globalization
of economic processes.
In the '90s,
the mood was about aspiration.
The mood was about looking Westward.
[Saif Ali Khan] Everything
that we'd gone through
has been reflective of the economy.
And more than the economy,
the economic policy, really.
The economic policy changes
brought about by our government,
under the inspiring leadership
of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao
are inspired by this mission.
India is on the move again.
We shall make the future happen.
[indistinct chatter]
Before that, we just had one brand
of scooter and two brands of cars.
And whatever, you waited 12 years for it,
and that's it. That's how it was.
You know, it's like its speed
was going slowly and… [exclaims]
Suddenly, during those five,
seven years, everything… [exclaims]
…it's just suddenly, like, sped up
at a much, much faster pace.
[gripping music playing]
[Anupama Chopra] You have urban India
really just racing ahead.
You have foreign goods in the market.
Travel has become so much easier.
There is more money.
There's more disposable income.
And then values start to shift.
Women start to come out
into the work force.
And this whole cultural churning
of, "What is an Indian?"
[Saif] And I think
we were looking for ideas,
we were looking for an identity.
[mellow music playing]
[Aditya] I think I was 14 or 15.
So I was watching a movie,
and the film was a direct copy
of an English film I'd seen.
And strangely, I felt
that this is the filmmaker
I'm going to become.
And it scared me.
Because I was not watching
anything Indian,
I was watching a lot of Hollywood movies.
I was actually listening to
only English music.
I realized I'm never gonna be able
to connect to the common man
because I'm so away from him.
So I started to force myself into becoming
more "desi" in a strange way. [chuckles]
I used to have a huge drawer
of, you know, English CDs.
Bruce Springsteen, Wham!,
you know that kind of… [chuckles]
I remember I just picked up all my CDs
and I threw them away.
And I went to a music store,
and I bought just whichever
were the latest films coming,
the music of those films.
So this was my induction to myself saying,
"You know what?
I'm going to induct myself into India."
[upbeat song playing]
Chandni was, kind of,
my first film as an assistant director.
Now Dad being
this really conservative filmmaker,
he actually took only a chief AD,
and there was me, who was a rookie.
[Rishi Kapoor] He was assisting Yashji.
[Neetu Kapoor] In Chandni?
-Yeah.
-Really?
Mmm-hmm.
-But no one gave any importance to him.
-Ah. [chuckles]
-[Yash Chopra] Camera.
-[man] Clap.
[Yash] Action.
[Aditya] Dad's sets were,
uh, really hectic
because he was
a very quick director, you know.
He was also very cost-conscious.
He used to shoot very fast.
Cut it. Taking it!
[in Hindi] Let all of that be there.
[Mahen in English] Normally, here, I mean,
you have three, four assistants and all.
No, only one costume man, one makeup man,
one cameraman and one assistant.
I was literally doing the job of everyone.
Giving the clap,
running around to, you know,
get the costume done, do this,
and at night,
I used to sit and write the continuity.
[laughs]
[serene music playing]
I've always wanted to ask you this
and I'm so glad we have this opportunity.
How was Lamhe born?
Lamhe was born much before Chandni.
[in Hindi] These moments, these memories
I'll cherish for years to come ♪
[in English] In Lamhe I was
a complete, proper, you know, AD
where I literally did from the first frame
to the last frame, you know.
He was very much, uh, involved in Lamhe.
In the script stage,
as well as the look
of the film, the clothes.
[in Hindi] Are you happy?
Yes.
[Karan in English]
The story was already conceived?
-You already had the story.
-The idea was conceived
that a boy falls in love with a girl,
she is elder to him.
Pallavi!
[enchanting music playing]
And the girl is in love
with somebody else.
When the boy comes to know
she is in love with somebody else,
she gets married to him,
and he's responsible for their marriage.
[in Hindi] Has Viren ever told you
how much he loves you?
He stretched his arms out to you,
but when you hugged me…
[Yash in English] One fine morning,
he comes to know
that girl named Pallavi
has met with an accident
along with her husband.
And she left a small daughter.
[in Hindi] Please save my daughter.
[Yash in English] This girl who's just
a photocopy replica of her mother.
[Karan] Mmm-hmm.
[in Hindi] Greetings, Kunwarji.
[enchanting music playing]
God's losing his sense of humor too.
He thinks he has played
a practical joke on you.
[in English] She falls in love
with this man.
[in Hindi] Kunwarji, please don't be
afraid to say that you love me.
[Aditya in English] Lamhe was strangely
a film, when Dad told me the story,
I said, "Dad, don't make it,
this won't run in this country."
[in Hindi] Pooja, wait.
[dramatic music playing]
[in English] Aditya told me that,
"This is a dangerous film."
"Why don't you change the end?"
I said,
"I made the film only for the end."
[in Hindi] I love you.
[in English] I love you, Pooja.
[Yash] I believe that in love,
there is no question of age.
There is no barrier in love,
according to me.
[Karan] Yeah.
So when I made the film, the film
was completed and the film was released.
Audience accepted
about 16,000 ft. of the film.
They were with the film.
They were enjoying the film,
every moment of it.
The last 500 ft., they didn't digest.
I loved Lamhe.
It's one of my top five favorite films.
But the film did not do well.
Nobody went to see Lamhe.
[gasps]
-[in Hindi] Is Kunwarji here?
-Yes.
[in English] I had sat with Adi once
and Adi had told me
that he thinks
there was one scene in Lamhe,
uh, where you see the daughter
when she is young…
[in Hindi] I'll just marry him.
Then where will he go?
-[chuckles]
-Every time he comes…
[Anupama in English]
…and that completely throws you off,
and you can never see her
as a mature woman in love.
And he says if we didn't have that scene,
he thinks it would've worked.
[solemn music playing]
[Aditya] My father
used to take failure really badly
and it used to affect all of us.
For a filmmaking family,
your identity is your film.
It's not so much
the monetary loss, you know,
it's the identity.
It's like you feel a little naked.
You feel, "Okay, if I go on the street,
people have hated this movie,
they're gonna stone you."
[Anupama] When you see failure
up close and so consistently,
maybe it makes you tougher,
uh, to enter a business
which is so widely unpredictable.
[Aditya] The biggest lesson I learned out
of that film was the heartbreak, you know,
when a film, uh, doesn't do well
and you put so much of yourself in it.
Obviously, this was the first film
I put so much of myself in it,
and you realize that you're
completely a slave to the audience.
They're not gonna really care
about the fun that you had making it,
the passion that you had,
all the discipline,
all the hard work that you put in.
That doesn't matter.
What's on screen?
Does it make sense to them?
They're gonna judge you for that.
So, uh, I think it kind of shaped me
where I kind of realized
that I'm not going
to let success affect me too much
so that the failure
will not affect me too much.
And I think… I don't think
I was conscious about it then,
but when I look back, I think probably
subconsciously that seed came in there.
After Lamhe, you attempted
another very different film.
[chuckles]
My first thing
when Yashji called me to do Darr.
[upbeat song playing]
[Juhi Chawla] I remember
going home and thinking,
"Any day now, Yashji's going to pick up
the phone and call me up and say,
'Sorry, it was a mistake.'
'We're not taking you,
we're taking somebody else.'"
It was, like, I couldn't believe that
I could be working in a Yash Chopra film.
[in Hindi]
You are the picture of my dreams ♪
[in English] After Sridevi,
you can't have just me stepping in.
And how am I
to match up to this performance?
[melodious song playing]
[vocalizes]
This isn't just a house ♪
[in English] And Yashji was still
looking around for his hero.
I think he went through
a couple of artists.
Then I approached
this actor, Shah Rukh Khan.
Hi, I'm Abhimanyu Rai,
you can call me Abhi.
And this is Peter, call him idiot.
-[in Hindi] Deer and lions are here.
-[man] Lions?
Yeah, there are statues, antlers,
pictures everywhere.
[in English] I don't have
the conventional looks to be a film star,
I don't have the conventional gait
to be a film star,
I don't have a conventional
backing to be a film star,
I don't have the conventional
dialogue delivery to be a film star,
I have not done conventional roles
to become a film star.
So there must be
something beyond all this,
which I would like to believe
is a lot of hard work and dedication.
I was actually sitting and watching Lamhe
when my manager came in.
And he said,
"I've just received a call in the office
and Mr. Yash Chopra
would like to meet you."
I had my own different impression
of what Mr. Yash Chopra would look like.
So I'd assumed
he would be this, uh, really tall,
long hair, semi-hippie kind of guy,
very cool, uh, you know, and knew love.
So I was a little taken aback.
It was just this simple man,
so straightforward
and so unlike what I had imagined him.
What he said was that,
"I think you're a great actor."
"And, uh, this is a bad guy role."
And, uh, he was very honest that,
"I wanted someone else,
but they are not willing to do it."
"I really think this is
a damn good role and you should do it."
And I was like, "Yeah, I'll do it."
"I don't want to do good guy roles.
I want to be a bad guy."
And, you know, I had just seen
Cape Fear with Mr. Robert De Niro.
[suspenseful music playing]
[thrilling music playing]
[tires screeching]
[yells]
[Shah Rukh Khan] And it was
an aggressive film.
[groans]
All the romance and all was there,
but it's a very mean film.
In today's time and age,
I think I'd be put behind bars
if I did a role like that. [chuckles]
[mellow music playing]
[Yash] Shah Rukh will let you do
-100 rehearsals.
-[Karan] Yeah.
And different types of performances,
different types of scenes
he would like to do.
Unless and until he's satisfied
or the director's satisfied,
-he doesn't give up.
-[Karan] He doesn't.
[Yash] I've worked
with Amitabh Bachchan in five, six films.
And the same dedication.
[Karan] Hmm.
[Shah Rukh] To be honest, during Darr,
Mr. Yash Chopra was
the topmost director of the country.
Uh, I felt a little, not out of place,
they were very loving.
But I still, you know,
felt a little ill at ease
in this big setup.
So, the person who I became friendly with,
uh, you know, who we could chat, was Adi.
[mellow music playing]
Actually, uh,
I didn't know Adi is his son.
When I met him first time,
when I met Mr. Yash Chopra.
There was a gentleman,
young boy standing next to, uh, Yashji.
And I thought, "Maybe
he's his chief assistant director,"
or, you know, AD we call them.
And, uh, so I gave him some inputs
for the character I wanted to play.
I had a young boy,
who was my classmate, who had a stammer,
and then we did some little study,
some BBC documentary or something
where they talked about that
people's minds become aware to one sound.
And it kind of, it's like a sharp current.
[mimics stammering]
Uh, so you can't say the word.
And, um, just the thought
I was having with Yashji
that, uh, "I would like to use this aspect
with the character that you've written."
And then Adi kind of suggested
there and then that,
"Listen, because you
become aware of a sound,
let's make him aware of the woman
he loves the most, her name."
So I only stammer on the word Kiran.
[in Hindi]
What was the name of your girlfriend?
[stammers] Kiran.
[in English] It was just for that
one word, because he's so aware of her.
You… you might still hear some of it is…
I stammer.
I used to stammer a lot.
Even his assistant director
was so with it,
and on the ball, and he had an idea,
"It'll be great fun working with them."
Yashji was such a big name
that artists used to be scared, you know.
And they could not open up with Yashji.
[in Hindi]
"No, I would like to do it this way."
[in English] With Adi they could do.
Yeah, when you've done work for
50 years like Yashji had, or 40 years,
he doesn't sit down and go into
the existentialistic backstory
of a character.
[immitating Yash] "Come on, don't."
But here was this young boy
I could sit down
and spout all my understanding
of enactment.
And he would be a part of it
and all the pseudo-intellectual
conversations about characterization, and…
[in Hindi] She's not mine.
[in English] And I had some
really fantastically stupid ideas.
I remember once going to Adi and saying,
"Can I make this phone call
hanging upside down?"
"Yeah, but I… Dad won't allow that."
Sunil?
[stammers] Kiran.
[dramatic music playing]
[Shah Rukh in English] So we were filters.
And sometimes he would
come and tell me that,
"Listen, I think Dad is not going
to take a close-up of this."
"But I think you did very well."
"So you suggest,
if I do it, he'll turn me down."
So we were like filters who
kind of helped each other with Yashji.
[exclaims]
[in Hindi] Take it easy, Sunil.
[in English] Sometimes Adi would come
and give the clap.
[whispers] "The second take
was much better. Do that."
[normal] So we were working besides him.
[chuckling] You know,
making our own film also.
That is where
Adi impressed Shah Rukh Khan.
When Shah Rukh Khan saw him working,
I mean briefing the scene
and taking so much interest
and all those things.
So he told him in that movie only,
[in Hindi] "Adi,
we'll work together one day."
"Yashji, please give Adi a chance."
[imperceptible]
[Shah Rukh in English]
Darr did very well. People loved it.
And there were people writing
on their chest with knives,
the names of the girls they love.
And it just became quite a phenomena.
And wherever I went,
people would say, "I love you, K-K-Kiran."
And, you know, it became a thing.
[footsteps echoing]
[Anupama] So Adi cut
the trailer for Darr, okay?
And, uh, at that time,
nobody made trailers for films.
But I remember that that trailer,
it was a complete breakthrough.
Nobody had done it.
[dramatic music playing]
You know, and it was all done
to that very dramatic music,
you know, that… [mimics drums beating]
And all this drama's happening.
And I was like, "Wow, I've never seen
anything like this before."
And I think
Darr was really where he found his voice.
And that trailer…
[chuckling] I don't know
if I should say this.
But, uh, my husband,
who has never been much of a diplomat,
um, actually after the film,
told Adi that,
"Adi, the trailer
was better than the movie."
[dramatic music continues]
[yells]
It was very clear
that there was going to be
a kind of generational shift now.
[mellow music playing]
[Aditya] So Dad was never a businessman.
He was always a director first,
a producer second.
Dad's vision was very simple.
He wanted
to make the films he wanted to make.
And as long as he was getting
to make the films
with somebody else's money,
he was happy to share profits
and make less if he has to.
When a man has that approach,
he is playing safe.
And he's playing safe
because he's a self-made man,
he's not seen money come very easily.
That was the prime difference
that I was never thinking of saving money
or, "What if this doesn't work?"
That was never in my thinking
because I was a rich kid
who… who… who kind of [chuckles]
felt that we can do more, you know.
So I remember when my father told me
that, you know, "You're ready to direct."
I said, "Dad, I'll direct the day
you are able to put
100% money into the film."
So he said, "Why? I mean what difference
does it makes to you?"
[chuckling] "Why are you even
telling me this?"
I said, "No, I… I… I just don't want
anybody else to own anything I create."
And it's so strange,
but that one decision actually changed us.
Because just imagine
sharing 50% of DDLJ's revenues,
I don't think we'd be where we are today.
[mellow music playing]
[Sooraj] Yashji and I were
at an American Consulate function.
Dilwale Dulhania,
they had not yet started shoot.
So he called me aside and he said,
[in Hindi] "Sooraj, please,
make Adi understand. He listens to you."
"He's written a script."
"He just keeps reading his script all day,
again and again."
Yashji complained to me,
"Tell him, we have also made many films,
but this is not the way.
What is this obsession?"
[gripping music playing]
[Hrithik in English] I still remember
Adi's first narration of Dilwale,
the script.
[Anupam Kher] I remember that
it was a three-hour narration.
And there was a pause,
there was a silence.
And Yashji looked at me
with an expression,
[in Punjabi] "What's happening?"
[Kajol in English] I didn't connect
to Simran at all to be very honest.
She was too obedient,
and she was too sweet, and too nice.
I was nothing like her.
It had a very lukewarm response
from all the writers.
And he had to relook at the script
and ask himself whether he was right.
But here was Adi,
doing what he wanted to do,
and not showing any kind of, uh, fear.
So even though he got a lukewarm response,
he said, "I have to make this film,
beacuse I believe in it so much."
And I used to get infuriated,
that, "You have no idea
what he's going to do. I disagree."
Uh, I didn't voice it out as strongly.
Uh, because these were all the,
you know, the bigwigs of the industry.
And I was just quietly saying that,
"These guys are going to learn something."
[Manish Malhotra] We were all sitting
and he said to us
that he's going the next day
to meet Shah Rukh.
And he says, "What if Shah Rukh
doesn't say yes to the movie?"
[gripping music playing]
[Shah Rukh] I tell Adi that,
"You know, somewhere
I have a feeling that you've fooled me."
Uh, "You call me
to cast me in a film called Darr."
"And I'm doing action, and I'm running,
and I'm shooting guns and everything."
And I always thought,
"This is my path now."
That I'm going to be an action hero.
And somewhere very quietly
without me realizing it,
uh, he converted me into a lover.
[in Hindi] We're here, face to face
With each other ♪
Should I gaze at you
Or love you? ♪
[Aditya in English] So I was
working with Shah Rukh in Darr
and I actually realized that Shah Rukh
is a really soft, and really nice guy.
But he pretends to be this macho
and he likes this action and he likes…
But he's actually not that.
I was looking for
a very unpredictable, uh, romantic hero.
And I felt that Shah Rukh
is, uh, the Darr and Baazigar guy
who can throw a girl off, uh, the roof,
he's a little, you know, edgy.
[in Hindi] What are you doing?
[Aditya in English] So while I was writing
Dilwale, I kind of just saw him.
[Shah Rukh] Adi came with his assistant
director, Karan Johar,
and narrated Dilwale Dulhania to me.
And I was shocked.
I didn't know what to say.
You know, while we were working,
we had discussed a lot of films and ideas
and I had told him this action idea,
and he had loved it.
[chuckling] And he thought
I'm coming to him with that.
When we talked,
we only talked action films.
You know, we talked like this,
and this action film with blood coming out
and fighting and everything.
And they narrated this really sweet,
namby-pamby film to me
about this guy who loves… [chuckles]
Doesn't even run away with the girl.
He says, "No, listen,
if your parents don't agree,
let's just sit at home, request them."
"I love you to death,
but can't go against--"
I said, "What is this?
What is this film they are telling me?"
I could not comprehend what happened
to them in the last six months.
So I just kept looking at them.
I said, "Very nice.
Very sweet, very good."
I love the fact that I'm busy all day,
and I'm tired
and my body pains, and it aches…
I think Adi must have gone and told Yashji
that I didn't like the film.
I said, "There was no like or dislike.
It just wasn't the film I wanted to hear."
And he said, "No, trust me."
He used to always say,
"Your eyes have something
that cannot be just wasted on action."
[solemn music playing]
[Aditya] Typical Shah Rukh,
he does not know how to say no.
So about for at least
a month or two, I think,
I kept going every week,
or every two or three days
to different sets of his.
He was always very nice to me.
But he was not committing.
[imperceptible]
[Shah Rukh] I'm personally very shy.
I'm not very good with romance.
And I don't believe
in that kind of romance also very often.
Uh, you know, I never thought I could
sing a song, you know, romantically.
So I have no understanding
why I am a romantic hero.
-[woman 1] Excuse me.
-[woman 2] Just one minute.
[Aditya] I was, like, now
at the edge of my patience.
He does not know how to say no.
So should I be moving on, you know?
So I remember this incident very clearly,
uh, it was on the sets
of a film called Trimurti.
And when he comes out, obviously
there are a lot of people collected
to take photographs and, you know…
There was this very old,
fragile, lady. Like really…
I would say she was about 80.
She said,
[in Hindi] "Son, you do
such great work, I like it a lot."
"But you die in every film
and in every film, you are murdered."
"I don't like that."
[in English] Fifteen minutes later,
he and I were in a corner.
And I told him, I said,
"See, I'm feeling you're hesitant."
"And you're not
being able to say no to me."
"You might choose not to do this,
which I think is completely,
you know, fine."
"But I would just advise you
that don't shut your doors
on never doing a love story."
"Because in this country,
a superstar will only be that person
who will be every mother's son,
every sister's brother,
every college girl's fantasy."
"And what you just heard that woman say
was that there's a lot of love,
that she is giving you."
"But there is a different persona
that she sees and she's not getting."
And I think it kind of somewhere,
uh, played on his mind,
and it stayed.
And the next time we met he said,
"Yeah, let's do this." [chuckles]
[pleasant music playing]
[Uday Chopra] I finished school and I was
in a relationship, I was, like,
uh, we were kind of in a breakup.
And she was going to Boston to study.
And I was not over her.
So I was like, you know,
"Maybe I'll study further."
"I'll go to Boston."
"Hey, I'm here.
In the same school," or whatever.
And, uh, that's when I get a call
early in the morning one day.
So the first call I made, uh,
for my crew was to my brother actually.
I used to hate
being woken up by my father,
he calls, says, "It's your dad."
"Okay, Uday, I just want to tell you that
Adi is making his first movie,
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,
and, uh, he's only asked for two people
that he wants to work with right now."
"One is Karan Johar
and the second is you."
And honestly, I wasn't a good assistant.
[chuckles] I didn't know
what was going on on set.
I mean, I was like 17, 18,
or whatever, that age.
I wanted to go out
and meet girls. [chuckling]
I didn't want to go and, like, work
from morning to night.
So the first time when I hear, like…
"Why… why does he want me?"
[chuckling] You know, like…
I somehow wanted my own people with me.
Uday was, like, really cool
and he knew Western culture well.
And I was dabbling in a film which,
you know, was straddling both the worlds.
It's like simple help like,
"Oh, I want a Harley-Davidson jacket,"
Uday will know what I want,
I don't have to get it myself.
[Uday] Adi called up and he said,
"Oh, Uday, I want Shah Rukh
to have this, like, kind of cool,
like, you know, Grease vibe,
that he has his leather jacket and stuff."
So I was like, "Yeah."
Then my friend said,
"There's the Harley-Davidson store."
"We can buy a jacket there."
So I was like, "Okay, cool."
I… I think I even wore that jacket
and brought it to India while wearing it.
Because it was so huge,
I couldn't fit it into my suitcase.
So I was like, "I'll just
wear it back to India… [chuckling]
…and then Shah Rukh can use it."
[indistinct chatter]
[Mahen] He put a condition to his father.
[in Hindi] "I don't want
any elderly person on the set."
[in English] I was the only exception.
[Uday] See, again, at that point,
filmmaking was still transitioning
from this very old, you know,
Hindi film kind of way
to this newer system that we have today.
There were not many young people on set.
Before that, like Dad's time,
like, scripts were written in Urdu.
And as kids,
we actually were learning Urdu.
So I think Adi realized that,
"If I really want to make
a truly young movie
that's coming from my heart,
I wanna have young people on set."
I hate clicking snaps. I ain't gonna
click snaps for nobody, dude.
Got that?
[Uday] Just the idea that, you know,
he wants me as his assistant was like,
"Okay," I felt like I belonged somewhere,
I felt like, "Okay, let's go do this."
"Like, you know, forget this girl."
In any case, she was dating
some other guy by then.
-You're recording?
-[Karan] Yes.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to channel
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
That is, uh, Shah Rukh Khan,
as you can see,
all the crowd's around him. He's our star.
[Karan] The glare.
-And, uh, Govind, Maqsood.
-[man] This is special effect.
You must pan to them when I am doing that.
[Karan] But I don't want to.
Anyway, those are the fighters there.
I have more memories of Dilwale
than I do of even my very first film.
-You do something.
-Hi!
You're the director.
You look like Raj Kapoor out of Barsaat.
[Aditya] Karan and I
got friendly in, uh, '93.
He was this really classy
south Bombay kid.
Very English speaking, you know.
And in perception, you would think
he would not be "Hindi film."
Adi, we're planning to introduce you
as the villain of Karan's film.
And introducing a new villain,
Mr. Aditya Chopra.
[Aditya] His father
didn't want him to be in films
so he was going to go to Paris
for a designing course.
-[in Hindi] What's that?
-A party invite.
[in English] "Eurail cordially invites you
to a dinner and dance in Paris."
In Paris? Wow!
[Aditya] While I was
discussing the story idea,
he used to really react
very interestingly,
sometimes give me
very good, uh, recommendations.
Uncle, can I have some beer?
Sorry, it's closing time. Come tomorrow.
[Aditya] And I thought,
"He's a really bright mind."
And I remember telling him that,
"Karan, you need to be in films."
"You're choosing a wrong profession."
[Karan] He actually
convinced me not to go.
He said, "You are a filmmaker,
why are you running away from it?"
"And why don't you assist me
on my film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge?"
[clapperboard thwacks]
Uday was better than me.
I was pretty useless.
Cut it.
I was just a very strong
creative force for Adi,
like, I… I was standing tall
with him on content.
But logistics, modalities, day-to-day
running of that set,
I was useless, I was terrible.
[Aditya] Full light. Full lights!
-Karan!
-[man] Get ready.
Adi was an amazing assistant,
though he was the director of the film.
How do you feel, Adi?
He just used to look at us,
snarl at our nonsense
and go out there and do it on his own.
[Kajol] Great director,
one and only genius…
He did everything on set,
from hold my umbrella one time…
[laughs]
…to brush my hair. So… [laughing]
[in Hindi] Imagine a girl in a white dress
running across this field.
It'll look brilliant.
[sweeping romantic music playing]
[chorus vocalizing]
[Kajol] For me, it's like
a simultaneous film that's running.
[Aditya] Cut it!
[Kajol] When I watched this shot
of lying down in the field,
I'm like, "Oh, my God." The breeze
was supposed to be blowing this way,
but the breeze was blowing
in the wrong direction.
[chuckling] And it was so hot.
Nobody could believe it was Switzerland.
[indistinct chatter]
[man in Hindi] It's too much.
[in English] The fact that
Yashji was on the set
was a very, very important factor.
[Shah Rukh in Hindi] Are you reminded
of your youth while watching this film?
-What youth? I'm still young.
-[Shah Rukh] 150 years ago.
You mean to say childhood.
[Shah Rukh] Okay, sorry.
-[in English] I started my life too early.
-[Shah Rukh] Okay.
[in Hindi] When you used go to school…
-[Shah Rukh] Uh-huh.
-[in English] I started
-directing films that day.
-[Shah Rukh] Okay.
So then when are you finally
going to learn how to direct a film?
-I think I need some time.
-[Shah Rukh] Okay.
It's a very sweet relationship,
you know, you see a father-son,
both of them are extremely…
How do you say…
It's an understatement to say
they're both genius at their job.
Yashji, what do you think about this film?
Which film?
[Shah Rukh] Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
It's going to be a great film.
-[Shah Rukh] Yeah?
-Yeah.
[Shah Rukh] Both of them respect
each other's genius, I think.
But there is
a father-son issue… [chuckles]
…if I may say so, that you know…
[in Hindi] For the second shot,
we'll be over there…
[Shah Rukh in English] As directors
on set, they are very different.
Yashji would never take a retake.
And Yashji and Adi's
biggest fights on sets are this.
He'll ask him,
"Why are you taking a retake?"
So he would say,
"I'm doing it for safety."
"Are you a fireman
that you should have safety?"
[in Hindi] "Are you a fireman?"
That's a combined shot, right?
With the artists?
[Karan in English] I saw sometimes
Yash Uncle struggle with Adi. Um,
I remember we were shooting
and Adi decided
that he must break
the Yash Chopra stereotype
and give Kajol a silk sari, not chiffon.
Because he didn't want it to be
like what Yash Chopra would do.
The whole modern-meets-Indian clothes,
so from an asymmetrical top
with a lehenga,
to a color, to an off-shoulder.
And I kept watching
a very distressed Yash Chopra,
who was like, "This fabric will not fly."
"And if it doesn't fly,
it will not look beautiful."
And I was like, "Yash Uncle, I'm trying
very hard, but he is not listening to me."
What can you tell us
about our debutant director?
Well, he's good.
He reminds me of, uh, this young guy
I once worked with, Steven…
-[Karan] Who's Steven?
-[man] Shah Rukh.
"Spielberg" people call him.
[mellow music playing]
[Shah Rukh] Their style
of shooting is very different.
Their, uh, belief in how a scene
should be constructed is very different.
Adi is a more verbose director.
[in Hindi] You want a final take?
Come on, one last.
You want to do it with the bag?
Where's the bag?
[Shah Rukh in English]
Adi would always stick to a line.
"You missed that."
"Adi, it wasn't important. Can we…"
"No, no, do it, yaar.
There was a reason I had written it."
But if you told Yashji,
"I'll do one more, I forgot that line."
"I didn't miss it. Must not be important."
[Abhishek] The greatest
difference between the two
is whenever you come to Yash Uncle's set,
he'd stop what he's doing, get up
and come meet you and talk to you.
"Come, come, sit," this, that.
I went on the first day
and I walked in and I saw Adi,
and I was expecting, "Oh, welcome!"
And he said, "Why have you come?"
I was like,
[laughing] "Okay. Sorry, I'll leave."
He's the kind of guy
that during lunch break
he'll just sit in the corner
chewing his moustache, look at actors,
"Why are you all eating when you all
should be working?" He's one of those.
He's neurotic.
[Kajol] Yeah, he was very grumpy on sets.
We've made fun of him,
we've pulled his leg.
We've pulled his non-existent hair.
He's casually, like as though
he does not notice the camera.
But he's very camera-conscious.
You can make that out
in the nervous movements
of his fingers on his eyes.
And he's going to beat me up
any moment now.
But I think I should wait.
There is still time. Yes, he has smiled.
He has smiled.
You're looking at him
and he's giving you that confidence.
[Abhishek] Adi knows
how to explain a scene so beautifully.
He enacts it.
Directors of today don't do it.
[Abhishek] Because he's
so consumed by what he does.
And his directional notes
are just brilliant.
He just knows how to get it across to you.
And I like to be told. I think an actress
always wants to be sure.
[Kajol] Dilwale was made, I mean,
almost 90% as it was written.
Which is really, really saying
something, uh, for a new director,
for, uh, somebody who has…
And so much of clarity.
There was never confusion on the sets,
"What are we doing,
how are we shooting it?"
Dilwale Dulhania had a lot of heart in it.
It was also like anybody's first film.
It has a rawness to it, it has a more
sense of believability in it.
[Shah Rukh] And I must tell you,
that last action scene
has been forced by me in the film.
Anupam Kher was supposed to come
for shooting. He got stuck in traffic.
And I went to Yashji
and I went to Adi and I said,
"Please can I have
one action scene in this film?"
"You can't… There's no need for it."
I said, "Please let me shoot it,
throw it out."
So he said, "Okay."
Yashji said, [in Hindi] "Okay."
[in English] He loved me so much
he said, "You have one hour."
[dramatic music playing]
One hour later, Yashji said,
[in Hindi] "That's it."
[in English] "You happy? Okay, now
we'll make the film that we're making."
[song playing]
[Shah Rukh] Years later,
I think, uh, I still hold it against Adi
he's never made an action film with me.
He made me into a lover boy,
so I… [chuckles]
I'll call him after this interview
and say, "Where's that film?"
[Chaudhry Baldev Singh in Hindi]
This is London.
World's greatest city.
I have lived here for 22 years.
Every morning, I walk down…
[Ayushmann Khurrana in English]
I remember this was Neelam Cinema,
Sector 17, Chandigarh.
It was a Sunday. It was houseful.
And I was, like, in the film.
I want to just go inside and just
be one of the characters in the film.
[Hindi song playing]
[in Hindi]
When you hear the cuckoo's cry ♪
Memories like bullets fly ♪
[Ranbir Kapoor in English]
I mean, I can't even explain it, like…
I have such a, uh…
such a strong memory of the feeling.
It was like Disneyland.
[in Hindi] I know I've never met him
or seen him.
But he does exist… somewhere.
[upbeat music playing]
[Namrata Rao in English]
It was one of those VCR screenings
because my relatives had come down.
And I was like,
"I really need a timeout after the film,"
you know, I was about 15 I think.
[Ranveer Singh] I was a kid then,
very impressionable.
[music continues]
And by golly, I was impressed,
you know. [chuckles]
[in Hindi]
The one who comes into my dreams ♪
Taunts me with his presence ♪
[in English] I remember I saw that film
probably 20 times in the theater.
It influenced the way I dressed.
It influenced the way I spoke to a girl.
It influenced how I was with my parents.
Uh, everything.
And I was like,
"Who is this guy?" [chuckles]
[music continues]
[Ranbir] Raj was everything.
You know, Raj could do anything.
Because I think
Aditya Chopra gave us a character
that was aspirational.
He was naughty,
he was charming, like, it shook you up.
Like, "I want to be this guy."
[in Hindi] Haven't I… seen you before?
Ah! At Robby's party, right? Huh? Huh?
I don't go to parties.
Uh, very good.
Me neither.
[in English] I don't like them at all.
[Namrata] He is a very archetypal bad boy
who goes
to this very archetypal good girl.
You know, and they both bring out
a little bit of each other.
[in Hindi] Stop, my crazy heart ♪
Let me first find out ♪
[Ranveer in English]
Guys wanted to be him,
and girls wanted a guy like him, and…
And even now the fact that she wanted
to go on this trip with her friends,
and this is literally
every Indian girl even now.
[in Hindi] Let me touch her and see ♪
[Bhumi in English] As a girl, you want
to have that iconic trip with your friends
where you meet your Raj.
[laughing] Yeah, so…
[chorus vocalizing]
[Ranbir] Yeah, I mean that's been
the defining film of our generation.
Fuck, it was amazing.
I can't even tell you,
the feeling is still alive inside.
[song ends]
[cheering]
-[laughs]
-[Kajol gasps]
[Aditya] Every love story
that I used to see till then, in India,
love was always rebellious.
Against the parents.
[dramatic music playing]
[Aditya] The youngsters wanted
to be in love,
and they had to rebel and run away.
And that's when they could…
That's the only way
they could be together.
[in Hindi] How dare you love Simran?
How can you be worthy of her,
when you're unworthy yourself?
[Kajol] No!
No, Father!
[whimpering]
[Aditya in English]
And that kind of always bothered me,
I came from a very secure, uh, upbringing.
I said, "Wait a minute,
what does this mean?"
"You're never going to meet your parents?
Never going to talk to them?"
[in Hindi] If you love her
and want to marry her,
you'll have to elope, understand?
[Aditya in English] And if I was
in love with a girl,
and the girl's father doesn't like me,
I will win him over,
you know, but I will not
take her away from him
because that will,
that will hurt everyone.
It will hurt him,
it will hurt her mother, it will hurt her.
And if they all are hurt,
how can I be happy?
According to me, Hindi cinema
is before Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
and after Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,
in terms of
how a hero treated the heroine.
[Kajol in Hindi]
Take me away from here, Raj.
You don't know my father, Raj.
We'll have to elope.
[Shah Rukh] I came here
to make you my bride.
I'll only take you away
when your father gives me your hand.
[Karan in English] We had one scene
where Shah Rukh tells Kajol,
"I don't want to run away
because our parents are everything."
[in Hindi] Do you love me?
[Uday in English] So that idea
that this hero
is leaving the most important
decision of his life
to Chaudhary Baldev Singh and,
"Only if he agrees to give
his daughter's hand in marriage,
will I… will I take it," was… was alien.
And I think that struck a chord
in people worldwide.
[Karan] Suddenly he opened the film up
to not just the youngsters,
but also to the families.
And it began a new era.
[punches thumping]
[Shah Rukh grunting]
[in Hindi] Stop it!
[yells]
[Ayushmann in English]
Did you cry while watching the film?
-[interviewer] Um…
-I always cry. [laughs] Yeah.
[train horn blows]
[in Hindi] Let me go, Father.
Let me go. Please…
[Ayushmann in English] When he was getting
bashed up, I was crying.
And when he did this from the train,
and Kajol was like,
[in Hindi] "Let me go, Father." [laughs]
[in English] Then he just leaves.
Please.
[in Hindi] Go, Simran…
"Go, Simran, live your life."
[in English] Oh, my God,
I was like, "This is it."
[in Hindi] Go, Simran… go live your life.
[in English] I was so emotional.
[sweeping romantic music playing]
I'll take that line again with Puri sahab.
[imitating Amrish Puri in Hindi]
"Go, Simran, live your life."
[music continues]
[Anupama in English]
That was the ultimate…
What do they call in Hollywood,
that four quadrant film
where it's male, female, older, younger,
urban, uh, rural, everyone.
[music continues]
[Shah Rukh] That film
is kind of seeped in old values,
but it is so wonderfully in a new bottle.
The older generation,
when they went to see this film,
it was very easy for them to turn around,
"See this is what I say India is."
And still, it was, uh,
a very youth-oriented love story.
Normally, love stories
are Romeo and Juliet,
where you go against the system,
the family, you know, West Side Story.
And we did all that also.
[both chuckle]
[mellow music playing]
[Anupama] DDLJ really kind of
spoke to everyone's anxieties
and while doing that it also told NRIs
that you're not lost.
[Lilly Singh] I'm so excited.
I think most average people
don't actually realize
how much I love Bollywood.
[chuckling] My DNA is almost embedded
with that of Bollywood cinema.
I do remember the first time I saw DDLJ.
It was in the one theater
that played Indian cinema
in my home town in Toronto.
It was just so unlike
anything I had seen before.
I think in films I saw prior to that,
everything was very,
for lack of a better term, Indian.
In India, happening in Indian families.
And I think DDLJ was the first time I saw
Western and Indian culture
kind of merge together.
You see two people,
that really want to be together.
They're fighting for something
they believe in.
Indians, and also specifically
from my experience, I'll say NRIs
that's the story of their life.
Like, most of my life's story is one where
I wanted to do something,
I wasn't allowed for whatever reason.
I know deep down, I really seek
the approval of my parents.
And that's why the ending of DDLJ
meant so much to me.
Because it wasn't just a,
"You don't agree, we're gonna elope."
It was, "No. We're going to fight
for this approval,
that deep down is so embedded within us."
And that's honestly been
the story of my entire life.
I'll be the Simran that fights for this.
[upbeat song playing]
[Pamela] We knew that he's very talented.
But when that film became a hit,
then a superhit, then a megahit…
A high point of our lives. [laughs]
You know, that was the film that
made Shah Rukh Khan a mega superstar.
[celebratory music playing]
[in Hindi] Paint your hands with henna
Decorate the bridal palanquin ♪
[man in Hindi] Whenever I'm stressed
or have a problem,
I come here to watch this movie DDLJ.
[in English]
It's a kind of tradition in Mumbai.
I'm 25 years now.
I wasn't even born when it was released.
-[interviewer] Yeah.
-I wasn't even born when it was released.
[man in Hindi] It had released in '95.
My dad used to do
black marketing of tickets then.
I used to steal my father's tickets
from the cupboard.
[in English] I saw it in Calcutta.
Priya Theatre, 1995.
And, uh, today,
this is her first family movie.
[man chuckles]
[crowd cheering]
[reporter] The show's going houseful here
in the theater.
Are you excited?
Can't you see the feeling from our face?
We feel on top of the world.
These crowds are not even
seen on the first day.
There were two Parsi ladies.
They used to come daily.
I've seen it more than 100 times.
[in Hindi] This is my
75th time seeing it here.
[in English] They had
seen this film 400 times.
[interviewer in Hindi] Now what is
happening? Why are people cheering?
Song's playing,
"When I saw you I knew, my beloved."
Paint your hands with henna ♪
[in English]
Classic Indian films like DDLJ…
[in Hindi] "Senorita, in big countries…"
[in English] You know what I mean.
They had a very big function here
at the time of 500 weeks.
[reporter speaking Hindi]
[in English] One fine day, in the morning,
I decided with my manager,
[in Hindi] "Put a board announcing
this is the final week."
[Kajol speaking English]
[speaking Hindi]
[continues speaking English]
[Manoj Desai]
Within a week, no exaggeration,
I got at least 200 to 300 phones,
"Who told you,
who are you to remove this movie?"
And then we kept on running,
kept on running.
[in Hindi] Hide the girls in the house
Out of modesty ♪
Our village is overrun… ♪
[Pamela in English]
I remember the 20th year,
people were in there
like it was a premiere.
[song continues]
[Shah Rukh] On behalf of DDLJ,
a 1,000 weeks, myself and Kajol
would never be here for so many years
if you didn't love us all.
Thank you so much.
[crowd cheering]
[in Hindi] It'll run for another 25 years.
[awards show theme playing]
[Aditya in English] I was 23
when DDLJ started,
I was 24 when it released.
[host] Now for the best lyricist…
[Aditya] Filmfare Awards growing up
was a huge thing for me.
So obviously when the time of DDLJ came,
I was still quite optimistic
about how things happen, and I win.
Best Actress goes to…
Kajol!
[audience cheering]
Shah Rukh Khan for
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
[audience cheering]
Best Director Award
goes to the maker we're all so proud of.
Mr. Aditya Chopra, please.
[Aditya] It was a great night.
That time DDLJ won ten awards,
which was highest ever till then.
I'd like to thank my parents
for bringing me up the way they did.
I don't know if this moment
will ever come again. [chuckles]
But that was the last time.
And I kind of told myself,
"I'm done with this."
"I don't want my validation
to come from this."
Because at the end of the day,
there are ten people
who are taking this decision.
And it was also coming
from the sense that,
"This isn't what I've come to do."
"I don't want to get caught up in this,
'Hey, how many awards do I have?'
'And next year will I win?
How do I make sure I win?'"
"I just want to make the best films I can
and I want to be away
from all the other peripherals."
[solemn music playing]
[Uday] DDLJ changed our life.
We never saw that kind of profit
coming into the company before that.
And suddenly we were like,
"I think our lifestyle
is about to change."
[Anil Kapoor] Aditya is
one of the few sons who,
I think, somewhere
he's surpassed his father's legacy.
He's taken the legacy
to another level, right? Like, I mean…
It's very rare
that somebody achieves that.
And he's done it on his own terms.
He has practically, you know,
shaped the… the contours of our industry.
[Uday] When we were children,
he would tell me that,
"When Akira Kurosawa makes a movie,
he just locks himself into this one place
and he doesn't come out
until his movie's ready."
"Imagine if we could
have a place like that."
[Pamela] And Yash asked Adi, he said,
"Adi, I want to give you a present."
"You please tell me what you want."
He said, "Dad, I want a studio
of our own." [chuckles]
Yash was very inspired.
He said, "Yes. We will do that."
[closing theme music playing]