But he gradually realised that he was becoming “detached from Indian values and emotional experiences” and he threw out his western music CDs. As a child, he thought everyone he met only made films and grow up as a typical upper-class teenager, listening to the same western pop hits as his peers. The early portions of the book - as he warms up, so to speak - are a treat. Still, given his miserliness in giving interviews, we must do with this. So often does one think - if only he spoke more about this or that. Kabir, an expert in getting that telling anecdote and asking that follow-up question, is largely missing. But it is hard to escape the feeling that not only is this his voice, but also that he gives out what he wants to. We also get some idea of his own early musings on cinema and Hindi films. He does give us a fairly detailed countdown of various facets of the making of DDLJ, from his initial ideas to the shooting of certain scenes to the songs, music and even choreography. So does this book open up the Chopra mind to us? Chopra is now no longer an industry newbie - it has been 20 years since DDLJ was made and since then he has been the driving force behind many significant and blockbuster films, including Chak de India and the Dhoom franchise. The least the reader would expect is a detailed, insightful and anecdotal volume, which advances our understanding not just of this significant film and the thought processes behind its making, but also of cinema in general. What happens when the recluse and the interviewer come together to produce a book on Nasreen Munni Kabir, who has written several books on Hindi cinema, is known for her lengthy interviews with veterans such as Lata Mangeshkar, Javed Akhtar, Gulzar and Waheeda Rehman. His photographs too rarely appear in the papers. Aditya Chopra, scion of the house of Chopras and producer-director of some of the most successful Hindi films, does not like to give interviews.