Aditya Chopra talks about his ‘Second First Film’ Befikre

My Second First Film

I was 23 when I started shooting DDLJ. I was young and fearless. I knew nothing, so I thought I knew everything. I thought I was making the best film ever made. God was kind and in spite of it not being the best film ever made, He gave it more success than it probably deserved. It’s been 21 years since DDLJ and I have worked tirelessly producing loads of films, building a studio model, even wrote and directed a couple of films on the way. All the while I gained a lot of knowledge and experience, came to know a lot of things.

But with knowledge came a sense of fear as well… Fear of failure, fear of not meeting expectations. When you know a lot you become more cautious and when you become cautious you tend to lose the one thing that drove you to do this in the first place, fearless passion. I figured it’s time to reboot myself.

What kind of film would I make if I was 23 today? I don’t think I would have made DDLJ because the experiences and influences of that 23 year old would be very different to today’s 23 year old guy. Today if Raj tells Simran that I’ll take you only when Bauji gives your hand to me, Simran would turn around and say “Dude I’m going, when you patch up with my dad come and find me and we’ll take it from there.” The world has changed. Definitions of love have changed. More importantly, women have changed. Today they are equal to men (actually stronger) in every possible way. This truly has changed the rules of love forever. Who asks whom out first? Who says I love you first? Do we say I love you at all? Who breaks up first?

I wanted to feel as if I’m making my first film. To achieve this, the most important decision I took was to surround myself with people I didn’t know. Since the film is set in Paris I chose a full French crew. All my key technicians, the cinematographer, production designer, costume designer, etc. were all French. Since I was a complete stranger to them, they did not come with any baggage of my past achievements and treated me as any regular director. And since they were unknown to me and my style of film-making, I could rediscover myself as a student of cinema once again. The other important decision I took towards my unlearning process was to let go of my greatest strengths. In all my writing work till date there are 3 pillars on which all my films lean on: Dramatic Conflict, Heightened Emotions and Intense Romance. I decided to break these pillars and see if I could survive without my favourite tools. It was scary but liberating.

So at 45, I’m being fearless once again. I’m stepping out of my comfort zone and into the minefield of the young and restless. Unlearning everything that I know and trying to figure out if I’m still relevant to the youth today. For the 3 odd films that I have directed in the last 21 years the audience has over-indulged me and given me great success each time. I’m hoping they will indulge me once more. I want to end with saying I’m Befikar in keeping with the spirit of my film but honestly, I’m shit scared!

Aditya Chopra

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38 Comments

  • Extremely endearing to read….i m sure it wl b a success as well …and i plan to watch it in theatres ….aftr a lot of time a truly fun movie is coming (atleast it lookz lk dat)

  • duhh…
    Befikre is sure shot blockbuster because Adi’s all films ended up being atleast ‘blockbuster’ just coz of Adi….
    and YRF has been a success guarantee always..

  • Either befikre will be entertaining and will be a big success or it will be a big rubbish with lots of crap and shamelessness !!!

    If Adi doesn’t announce his next film with SRK and its release date then we are going to bash him more than one can think of .

    Better announce it ASAP !!!

  • Trailer doesn’t create that much buzz , but who knows after all it’s an Adi Chopra film.
    So fingers crossed
    Waiting for #RaeesTrailer.

  • Best of Luck to the one of Best Director we have today…. The Director of aclaimed films Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Mohabbataein… Befikre looks different but we have confidence in ur directions

  • Your DDLJ is a remake of real romantic film ever made MAINE PYAAR KIYA.
    Just only change is Maine pyaar kiya belong to INDIA and cult culture. And ddlj is belong to foreign and modern.
    Till date you are a average director.

  • all folks save your cash and spent it on 23rd december for paisa vasool movie. befikre team also not sure about this film thats why all this gimmicks. the only best thing in befikre seems to b music & ranveer.

  • Adi/KJO are overated due to working with SRK, Imtiaz is as big as Adi/KJO but underated because of not working with superstar

  • Befikre trailer: more than 32 million ( 3rd most watched trailer in history of Hindi cinema after Dangal and sultan ) ( with 117 K likes ) ( released on October)
    1st song Nashe Chadh Gayi -~ more than 74 million ( with 258k likes- 18k dislikes ) released on end of October )
    2nd song Ude Dil Befikre ~ more than 28 million ( with 72k likes – 9k dislikes ) released on November
    3rd song You and Me youtube+fb ~ more than 10million ( with 20k likes 2k dislikes) released on November haters gonna hate WHO CARESS?!))
    Superhit is coming soon .. Haters will eat their WORDSSSSS!

  • SRK gave ATBB to both Adi/KJO they are selling themself as DDLJ/KKHH maker now SRK will give same fame to Imtiaz which he actually deserve

  • Befikre will be a flop without Adi sir..
    so his name is there so it may turn to a Hit satus or the bollywood will turn to hit
    by his influence..

  • Around of Ranveer and Befikre have so many negativity : reasons->
    1. SRK fans: Bcz after back to back 3 films with SRK , Adi has choosed ?Ranveer
    2. AMIR fans : they are making negative buzz coz after 2 weeks Dangal is releasing ( have so many comments like this ” save ur tickets for Dangal , ” ” I’ll watch Dangal not for this ” bla bla bla
    3. Salman, RK and all young actors fans : simple , they didn’t likes ?Ranveer !
    But again , who cares ! Super hit is coming ….

  • Sorry to say ADI, but your direction was just average in DDLJ, Mohabbatein & RNBDJ, what made your movies rock was SRK, Befikre won’t work!

  • Adi Chops… as you have always brought something new to the celluloid, we have expectations with this one also… Experiment can either pays well or teaches a lesson for a lifetime… And you are no loser… All the best sir…

  • They talk like they are Directing an Inception or Interstellar esque movie but its nothing but a shitty rom com with 10 songs.. pfft

  • I hope it doesn’t turn out a copy paste of some Hollywood movie . the theme is copied ..

    It’s a Hit…

  • @SK Fan . me too ..after a long time going to watch a movie in cinema..Looking like a total fun movie plus the Rocking songs .

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