To have Passion like Aditya Chopra

Anecdote

Not so in the distant past I watched movies on DVDs.?Those DVDs were usually rented from a nearby DVD rental store.?Renting a DVD on Saturday evening and returning on Monday for weekly entertainment was a ritual.??Amazon was also in its first decade and I used it to find similar movies that I had liked previously. ??One such like was a movie that could be classified as European Art House. ??So armed with a list of some other EAH movies, went to the library asking for those titles.?None were available.?The library had them but were all out in circulation.?The shopkeeper informed me that a client had taken all of those and similar other titles.??Not only the ones I asked for but ten of those.?Numbers are not accurate but just to give a sense. ?Intrigued I asked the name of the client.?Aditya Chopra.????

Being a film buff, I knew who Aditya Chopra was.?The DVD guy further informed me that he saw a movie a day.?

Passion ?

The last weekend (18th/19th Feb 2023), I saw the first two episodes of the Netflix series “The Romantics”.?The second episode is about Aditya Chopra.?He confirms he watches movies the on the first day of release every Friday.??Daily one movie on DVD is not mentioned but I have no reason now to distrust what the DVD guy said.?If a person watches, a movie in a cinema hall every week, watching a movie on DVD a day would not be far-fetched.?

The second episode of the series is a masterclass on career choice, passion & execution and importantly a big revelation. ??Aditya Chopra was or rather is so low profile, that jokingly doubts were raised about his existence.?Well, the series shows, he exists and also is a very articulate speaker. ??

Watching and keeping track of every movie released during his teens in notebooks year after year, analysing its strengths and weakness, opportunities for improvement (cutting two songs in Hum Aap Ke Hai Kaun) predicting its success or failure is rare.?Analysing scenes, their shot taking, picturization of the songs, everything was stored in his mind.?There was an institutional

?memory created in one brain.??This is very similar to some stock market investors a reading annual reports every day like Warren Buffet.??

Positive of Nepotism

The series touches on the nepotism debate.?For a Studio that has successfully launched the careers of many actors, (Ranbir Singh, Anushka Sharma, Vaani Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Sushant Singh Rajput & more) the studio run by big brother failed to make Uday Chopra’s career. ?One of the reasons is that Uday Chopra was not clear that he wanted to be an actor.?No such doubts in the mind of Aditya Chopra.?Though being the best dancer in the birthday party dance competition defeating even Hrithik Roshan,?Aditya Chopra is clear about not being an actor but a filmmaker. ??The key is his acceptance that he has got it easy being Yash Chopra’s son & even the benchmark he sets.?That if one has such a head start and then he does not take his work/company to the next level, then that head start is of not worth it.?Clearly, he sets a very high standard for joining a family business.?Something for kids of promoters to ponder upon while taking the family fiefdom in any field. ??Few pass the test, in business: ?– JRD Tata, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani,?Azim Premji… many fail -?Mafatlal’s,?Singhania’s, Modi’s….. In Politics: In politics in the same family: Indira Gandhi was a success and Rahul Gandhi is still young…

Nothing wrong with joining the father’s business or profession, the key is to decide fast, start early and learn the ropes.?

Out of syllabus?- edited or not?

I have watched only two episodes out of four.?So do not know whether is covers the controversy surrounding the boycott of Bollywood.?Without going into the merits or demerits of the boycott brigade, one thing is coming out clear:?Aditya Chopra now seems to have lost touch with the ground or suffers from the echo chamber effect. ?Maybe he watches movies now at PVR and not in Chandan, a single screen in Juhu is now gone for redevelopment.??The quality of movies has come down.?Missing are the genre-creating themes like Chak De, Rocket Singh – Salesman of the year.?What is left over is the stupid idea of ISI and RAW agents collaborating to fight an enemy. ?The Punjabi Pappi Jhappi syndrome (Veer Zaara), gets extended even to the spy universe. ??The same idea (RAW male, ISI female) has been flogged till now in three movies with the quality of villains becoming funnier than sinister and VFX pedestrian.?The Bond franchise has had more creative villains:?George Soros can be an inspiration.???

Finally in summary: ??

Aditya Chopra did take his production house producing a film every two years to a production house producing 3-4 films a year.?It still r the only big fully Indian own production house.?Disney, Viacom and Sony have the money and muscle but not the mind for the Indian market.?For that Chopraji needs to start going back to single screen also.??

PS: European Art House (EAH) is a euphemism for European movies with adult themes, which in turn is a euphemism for erotica, which in turn is a euphemism for soft….?