Aditya Chopra: A reclusive filmmaker and movie buff

Not many have met Aditya Chopra in person. Hands down, he is the shyest most reclusive filmmaker in Mumbai. To meet him you have to be a blessed soul like Shah Rukh Khan , Karan Johar or Ranveer Singh .

Ranveer spends more time with Aditya than he does with his wife Deepika, though after their latest collaborative project Jayeshbhai Jordaar and its feeble performance at the box office, I don’t know if Aditya wants to say anything to Ranveer for a while.

So coming back to the original question: does Aditya Chopra actually exist? He does, friends. He does. I have actually met him, albeit briefly and when he was told I was a journalist he fled, literally ran away.

Such are the dream encounters that make life worth living.

If the truth be told I was far close to Aditya’s father the great Yash Chopra who was rightly very proud of his elder son. Yashji loved people. He loved meeting them. Whenever he came to know I am in Mumbai he cleared his appointments and made space for me.

During one of our meetings, dear Yashji spoke about his sons. “My younger son Uday is the people’s person. He loves to go out, party, meet friends. My elder son Aditya is a complete recluse. Earlier I used to tell him to go out and meet friends. But he preferred to be home, writing films. When he came to me with Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge I was bowled over. I was so proud of Adi. I told him, ‘Beta do what you want to. Take whatever you like. Just make the film’. How was I to know it would become the biggest moneyspinner in the history of Yash Raj Films?! The film ran and ran and ran and is still running. I had never seen so much revenue before.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell Yashji that I didn’t think much of DDLJ . I know that sounds awful to those who consider it the last stopover for romantic films. But I found the premise to be trite. Though the lead pair Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol were wildly compatible, Kajol was way too loud and screechy.

Then came Mohabbatein which was three-and-a-half hours of a sheer slog.

No, I preferred Aditya Chopra’s third film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi . An outlandish premise of a boring husband who turns into a cheesy loverboy to win over his wife, Rab N Bana Di Jodi showed Aditya’s love for Satyajit Ray. At beginning of the film, Shah Rukh steps in to marry bride Anushka Sharma whose bridegroom has died suddenly. This prelude owes its allegiance to Satyajit Ray ’s Apur Sansar .

Not many know this. But Aditya Chopra is an avid movie buff. He watches films from all over the world. Until recently, pre-pandemic, he watched every Hindi film in the theatre on the Friday of its opening. Sometimes keen fellow spectators would recognize him. Adi would pretend to be someone else. Just like Shah Rukh in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

We haven’t seen him direct a truly outstanding film since…well since forever. Mohabbatein had come five years after DDLJ. And Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi came eight years after Mohabbatein. Aditya Chopra’s last director was the execrable Befikre in 2016.

He needs to come out of his shell, and meet people other than those who work with him. Maybe he can’t be as gregarious as his wife Rani Mukerjee. But at least he should stop fleeing from the company.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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