Aditya Chopra Speaks About The Bad Days Faced By YRF & How Shah Rukh Khan’s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi Help Them Through It ( Photo Credit – IMDb )
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Yash Raj Films (YRF) is one of the big moguls of the Indian film industry, but it, too, had its share of bad days. Recently, Aditya Chopra opened up about a time when they went through a low phase and how one of Shah Rukh Khan’s films revived them and gave YRF a new lease on life. To be precise, it was Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, which marked debut film of Anushka Sharma. Interestingly, their SRK led Pathaan has given Bollywood a much needed booster in 2023. Scroll down to know more about it in detail!
Adi Chopra and SRK gave some iconic films and the biggest of them is Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which is now re-released to celebrate Valentine’s week. Years back, RNBDJ not only gave the production banner renewed life but kick*ss launch to Anushka’s career. But what many don’t know or might have forgotten is that before this film, the banner gave quite a few flops.
Aditya Chopra opened up about YRF’s bad days in the Netflix Docu-series, The Romantics, and as quoted by the Indian Express, the filmmaker recalled, “I realized that I needed to give the company a big successful film, and I would have to do it myself.” He further stated that to come up with a sure-shot hit story, he went to London to write his story, which we saw in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Like many, the most basic question popped into people’s minds as well back then, as he recounted, “Everyone’s problem was that how will she not recognize him? The film would fail in its premise.” That’s when Shah Rukh Khan came in.
As per Aditya Chopra, Shah Rukh Khan agreed to the role of Surinder/Raj. Anushka Sharma, too, spoke about how Adi was adamant about keeping her casting a secret. She recalled, “I was only 19 when I signed that film. My first film and Adi said that I could not tell anyone. Nobody knew about it. In the office, no one was allowed to tell each other. It was a huge secret. Adi told me that I couldn’t even tell my parents.”
Aditya Chopra further recalled YRF was already going through a bad phase, and to top that, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’s release date was locked, which was 12th December 2008, just a few days after the gruesome 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. Recalling that time, he said many wanted him to push the release date but didn’t budge and relied strongly on his guts. He said, “The city was paralyzed, and the film was coming out in 2 weeks…so a lot of people in the company told me to push the film. I took the risk and did not change the date. The film did well, and we were okay.” Luckily for him, Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma were successful in winning the audience’s hearts.
Now standing in 2023, Shah Rukh Khan again delivered a massive hit under the banner of YRF. His Pathaan has been doing tremendously well at the box office, and it was released on 25th January.
And for the docu-series about Yash Chopra and his legacy Yash Raj Films, aka YRF, is streaming on Netflix.
