Aditya Chopra says YRF spent more money on bikes than on John Abraham, Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra in Dhoom: ‘Wanted to combine Manmohan Desai and Michael Bay’

Ever since the Netflix documentary series The Romantics was released earlier this week, audiences and celebrities like Karan Johar have been praising it for providing a peek inside one of Bollywood’s most venerable production houses. The four-episode series focuses on YRF studios and Aditya and Yash Chopra’s efforts in building a strong foundation for a more modern Bollywood.

The studio’s head honcho Aditya Chopra revealed many behind-the-scene stories about the making of some of their most iconic films, including the 2004 hit Dhoom. Stating that he had envisioned Dhoom to be an amalgamation of Manmohan Desai and Michael Bay’s filmmaking aesthetics, Chopra said, “There were three pillars of Hindi films like everybody used to say and that you can’t do without, which is drama, emotion and romance. I said I am going to remove these three pillars and see what happens! With Dhoom, I wanted to make a film where I wanted to combine Manmohan Desai and Michael Bay.”

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Chopra also stated that the production house spent more money on the bikes than on its male stars — Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra and John Abraham: “In Dhoom, I spent more money on bikes than on Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Uday Chopra.” The film saw Uday Chopra (younger brother of Aditya Chopra) in a comedic role. However, Uday’s career couldn’t really take off in Bollywood, and Aditya admitted the same in the series. Reflecting on this, he said, “My brother is an actor, and he is not very successful actor. Here is the son of one of the biggest filmmakers. He is the brother of a very big filmmaker. Imagine a company like YRF that has launched newcomers, we could not make him a star.”

Aditya Chopra has also directed a handful of films, including the likes of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Befikre.