How Aditya carries on the Yash Raj legacy

1973 was a new beginning for Yash Raj Films and in the coming two decades Yash Chopra made many films, some hits and some flops but his passion remained undiminished. “My job is to continue making films,” he said to me many years ago. “My only regret is that I made too few films and when I look back today, I feel I could have many more films. Those were different times; trends will change and in years to come our banner will make multiple films at the same time.”

He was right. Trends changed with time and with son Aditya on his side Yash Raj Films was ready to conquer new milestones. The dream began with ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge’ in 1995 and over a decade by the time Aditya Chopra launched his second film ‘Mohabbatein’ 2000 the banner had become an empire. A lot had changed and a lot remained the same. Some old traditions were retained so if Yash Chopra gave break to all his assistants beginning with Ramesh Talwar in ‘Doosra Aadmi’, Manmohan Krishnan in ‘Noorie’, Dilip Naik in ‘Nakhuda’, Deepak Sarin in ‘Aaina’ and Naresh Malhotra in ‘Ye Dillagi’, to produce small films within restricted time and budgets for his banner, son Aditya Chopra carried forward the legacy where he went ait a step forward by granting his failed protégés a second chance as well. So Sanjay Gadhvi after ‘Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai’ got ‘Dhoom’ and Kunal Kohli after ‘Mujhse Dosti Karoge’ got ‘Hum Tum’ respectively in 2004.

In the meantime Yash Chopra dreamed his films too. His magnum opus ‘Veer-Zaara’ galloped with YRF’s ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ directed by Shaad Ali crashing all records followed by ‘Salaam Namaste’ directed by debutant Siddharth Anand. It was almost as if junior Chopra had mastered a strategy that safeguarded his films (those he directed as well as those he produced) to become blockbusters. He combined contemporary subjects with novel locations: Goa for ‘Dhoom’, Paris for ‘Hum Tum’, Uttar Pradesh for ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ and Melbourne for ‘Salaam Namaste’.

Man-woman relationship remained the focus of all Yash Raj Films and catered to the NRI audience. Like the father, son Aditya stayed miles away from action sequences and the vamp and the villain hardly ever surfaced in his stories. They always cast big stars in their films even in cameo parts be it Karisma Kapoor in ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’ or Amitabh and Hema in ‘Veer Zaara’.

The magic sustained for seven years but after every high tide is a low tide and YR Films is no exception to the rule. After the super success of ‘Dhoom 2’ and ‘Fannaa’ in 2004 came a series of disappointments-‘Ta Ra Rum Pum’, ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’, ‘Laga Chunri Mein Daag’ and ‘Aaja Nachle’ in 2007 but all was forgiven when Chak De ruled the box-office and won the hearts of millions. Come 2008 and the magic was failing again. The much hyped about ‘Tashaan’ was a let down and so was ‘Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic’. There were high expectations from YRF’s first animation film ‘Roadside Romeo’ in 2009 but the box-office rejected it outright.

The artistic failure of all these films hurt more than the commercial let down. In the olden days the least impressive of Yash Chopra films like ‘Parampara’ had the capacity to engage the audience with their characters. Not any longer. Something was going wrong somewhere which can and does happen in any creative profession. Call it bad luck, creative block or time for rethink. YRF did all that and the tide turned. Since ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ from the banner that proved a super duper success it has been a sea saw of hits and flops. ‘New York’ was hit. ‘Dil Bole Hadippa’ flop. ‘Rocket Singh’, ‘Pyaar Impossible’, ‘Badmash Company’, ‘Lafange Parinde’ were flops and ‘Band Baaja Baraat’ super hit. ‘Mere Brother Ki Dulhan’, ‘Ladies v/s Rickey Behl’ flop and small film ‘Ishaqzaade’ super hit. ‘EK Tha Tiger’ was a blockbuster, so was ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’. ‘Aurangzeb’ was a flop, ‘Shudh Desi Romance’ a hit, ‘Dhoom 3’ a blockbuster and ‘Gunday’ average but the banner continued to be number one and never lost faith in its directors. The message of the films was the magic and the result was evident at the box-office.

- Bhawana Somaaya/ @bhawanasomaaya