'We have crafted a unique cinematic language through our films'

The Romantics (Netflix), a four-part docu-series, captures the cinema and times of Yash Chopra and the eponymous studio he later formed. Ever since it released on February 14, the series has been trending. Over two-and-a-half years, Los Angeles-based director SMRITI MUNDHRA (Indian Matchmaking, A Suitable Girl) trawled through 400 hours of archival material dating back to pre-Partition cinema and pictures and interviewed over 35 people for the series. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar spoke to her about cinema and making a dent in Hollywood. Edited excerpts:

- Vanita Kohli-Khandekar

We, as Indians, don't celebrate our cinema at all. There is always a sense of embarrassment. The Romantics is a celebration of Hindi cinema. Is that where you were coming from?

When I was in film school (Columbia University School of the Arts) we discussed the great auteurs of global cinema. We analysed those films, the intentional cinematic language and in what way it was reflecting the country's history and the zeitgeist of the times. We were doing this with Japanese, the French New Wave and Italian films. I thought we must do this for our own cinema. We are large contributors to the global cinema canon, not just in numbers and language but also in terms of cultural impact. We have crafted a unique cinematic language through our films and that is not something to be embarrassed about. It is something I wanted to learn more about. That motivated me.

How much has the fact that you are Jagmohan Mundhra's daughter impacted this?