Aditya Chopra recalls how Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma's hit film,'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' helped end YRF's run of unsuccessful films.
Yash Raj Films (YRF) is one of the largest production houses in the Indian film industry, which veteran filmmaker Yash Chopra founded in 1970. In the years that followed, the production house created some of the most successful and high-budgeted films, including Daag, Chandni, Dil Waale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge, Darr, Dil Toh Pagal Hai etc.
After that, however, the company saw an all-time low, as several of its high-budgeted films failed to perform well at the box office, breaking the perfect success ratio streak of YRF. As a result, from 2007 to 2010, the company suffered huge losses of millions. This is when Yash Chopra's son, Aditya Chopra, took over as the Vice-Chairman of Yash Raj Films in 2010. Recently, in the show, The Romantics, Aditya Chopra talked about YRF's low phase and how Shah Rukh Khan's film gave a new ray of light to the production house.
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Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi not only launched Anushka Sharma's successful movie career but also saved the production house from its continuous streak of flops. Aditya Chopra opened up about the same in the Netflix Docu-series, The Romantics, revealing that in 2007, YRF was going through a bad phase and needed a big hit to get back on track. That is when he went to London and came up with the story of the film, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Talking about the same, Aditya said:
“I realized that I needed to give the company a big successful film, and I would have to do it myself.”
Adi also recalled the time when people questioned the story's premise. That's when Shah Rukh Khan came on board and agreed to play the lead role of Raj/Surinder. Aditya said:
“Everyone’s problem was that how will she not recognize him? The film would fail in its premise.”
When Anushka appeared in the movie, she was only 19 years old. The actress recalled that Aditya insisted that she should not be disclosed to the audience before Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi's release. Her casting was kept a huge secret, and she was not even allowed to tell her parents about her role. Anushka said:
“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.”
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Aditya further talked about how working on the film helped him forget his anxieties and worries. However, the release date for the Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was locked for December 12, 2008. However, a few weeks prior to the release of the film, catastrophe hit the country in the form of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. People advised Aditya to push the dates, but he stayed consistent with his decision and didn't change the dates. In the end, the film proved to be a massive hit at the box office. Aditya stated:
“The city was paralysed, 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."
Currently, Shah Rukh Khan's film, Pathaan produced by Aditya Chopra under YRF has been shattering records at the box office.
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