Before iconic Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Aditya Chopra reveals he was struggling to become more 'desi' in a strange way

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge director Aditya Chopra opened up about his early life in an on-camera interview in Netflix’s docu-series The Romantics . Yash Chopra’s son was very sure about making his career in filmmaking as he watched his father closely mastering the art. At one point of time, he was scared he might not connect to Indians and ended up becoming a filmmaker who copies. Hence he forced himself to be more ‘desi’ and revealed his induction process.

It was 1991 when Manmohan Singh unveiled the historic liberalization budget, when Aditya started to look westward. “In the 90s, the mood was about aspiration, looking toward westward. I think I was 14 or 15, and 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 am going to become.And it scared me because I was not watching anything Indian but watching a lot of Hollywood movies,” he said.

Also read: Shah Rukh Khan reveals Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra's biggest fights on sets; Karan Johar remembers their tussle on Kajol's silk saree in DDLJ 

“I realized I am never able to connect to the common man because I am so far away from him. So I started to force myself into becoming more desi in a strange way. I used to have a huge drawer of English CDs including Bruce Springsteen. I remember I just picked up all my CDs and threw them away.And I went to a music store and bought just whichever were the latest films coming. This was my induction to myself saying,’you know what I am going to induct myself into India,’” he added.

Talking about the idea of Indian cinema, he said, “I think Indian cinema represents Indians. And Indians, a 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.” Meanwhile, The Romantics is a four-part series talking about the history of Bollywood through the lens of the Yash Raj Studio’s impact over the past 50 years in making Bollywood globally known. Directed by Smriti Mundhra, the series was released on February 14, i.e Valentine’s Day paying tribute to Yash, the father of romance in Indian cinema.