New Delhi: The problem of nepotism has been a sore spot in Bollywood. New on Netflix, director Yash Chopra's documentary ‘The Romantics’ is the first to focus on this topic. In the documentary, Yash’s son Aditya Chopra talks about his brother Uday Chopra, who, despite being the son of a famous director, failed to build a name for himself in the Hindi film business.
Uday only had a few successes in Bollywood, namely ‘Dhoom’, ‘Meri Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai’, and ‘Mohabbatein’.
Aditya, on discussing the topic of nepotism, remarked, “One of the things that people tend to ignore, is that every person who comes from a privileged background–everyone is not successful. I can articulate it without mentioning other people. I can just articulate it mentioning my own family. My brother is an actor, and he’s not a very successful actor. Here is the son of one of the biggest filmmakers. He’s the brother of a very big filmmaker. Imagine a company like YRF who has launched so many newcomers, we could not make him a star. Why could we not do it for our own? The bottom line is, only an audience will decide ‘I like this person, I want to see this person’. No one else.”
Aditya said at the conclusion of the documentary, “Yes, if you are born into a film family, there’s no doubt that there could be an easier into getting an audition or a break. But it stops there.”
While acknowledging Uday Chopra's abilities, Aditya Chopra said that the public didn't view his brother the way he did.
'The Romantics' releases on February 14, 2023 (Valentine's Day) as a tribute to Yash Chopra, who is regarded as the ‘Father of Romance’ in India because of his iconic romantic films.
Smriti Mundhra, who previously worked on Netflix's critically acclaimed 'Indian Matchmaking' and 'Never Have I Ever' franchises, is the director of the docu-series.