Shalini Dore Features News Editor Smriti Mundhra, the creator of “Indian Matchmaking,” has launched a show called “The Romantics” on Netflix just in time for Valentine’s Day.
The docuseries centers on a bastion of Hindi cinema, Yash Raj Films, which just released the smash hit “Pathaan.” Netflix releases the series day and date in India, the U.S.
and around the world. And it is coming just as interest in films from the subcontinent are piquing international interest. “It was sort of on my bucket list to make something about Indian cinema, broadly,” she tells Variety. “The intention was to look at the formative, most iconic films in Indian cinema, or the filmmakers — something that gives a glimpse into our industry.” To Mundhra, there was a gap in world knowledge of the films coming out of Mumbai, even though many people thought they knew “Bollywood.” “When I was in film school I studied all the auteurs of world cinema, but with the exception of Satyajit Ray there was nothing about Indian cinema,” she says.
But having embarked on the project, Mundhra decided to make it about the 50 years of Yash Raj Films, based on the “longevity of [Yash Chopra’s] career and his contributions to Indian cinema,” she says.
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