Yash Chopra

1932–2012 · Indian director, producer and screenwriter

Biography

Yash Chopra (27 September 1932 – 21 October 2012) was an Indian director, producer and screenwriter and one of the defining figures of Hindi cinema. He founded the production company Yash Raj Films and is best known for romantic melodramas, often built around strong female leads. Six National Film Awards and eight Filmfare Awards recognised his work, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers in Bollywood history.

Born in Lahore in British India into a Punjabi Hindu family, Chopra was raised largely by his elder brother B. R. Chopra, a filmmaker who had begun as a film journalist. He first hoped to study engineering, but his interest in cinema took him to Bombay, where he worked as an assistant director to I. S. Johar and then to his brother. His directorial debut came in 1959 with Dhool Ka Phool, a melodrama about a Hindu child raised by a Muslim man. In 1961 he followed it with Dharmputra, one of the earliest Indian films to address Partition.

His breakthrough was Waqt (1965), a family drama with an ensemble cast that is credited with pioneering the multi-starrer format in Bollywood and earned him his first Filmfare Award for Best Director. In 1970 he set up Yash Raj Films, whose first independent production, Daag: A Poem of Love (1973), was a commercial success. During the seventies he worked repeatedly with Amitabh Bachchan, most notably on Deewaar (1975), which helped establish the actor as a leading star. The 1980s were more uneven, with several films failing at the box office; Faasle (1985) is the one Chopra and many critics regard as his weakest.

He recovered with Chandni (1989), a romantic musical starring Sridevi that came to define what is often called the Yash Chopra style: heroine-centred stories, emotional drama, glamorous settings and songs filmed abroad. Lamhe (1991), also with Sridevi, was acclaimed by critics and did well overseas, though it struggled in India. With Darr (1993) he began a run of films with Shah Rukh Khan, followed by Dil To Pagal Hai (1997) and Veer-Zaara (2004). He died of dengue fever in 2012 while making Jab Tak Hai Jaan, and his legacy lies in the romantic films that shaped Hindi cinema for decades.

Key films

Waqt (1965): ensemble family drama, a pioneer of the multi-starrer in Bollywood.
Deewaar (1975): action thriller with Amitabh Bachchan, key to his rise as a star.
Chandni (1989): romantic musical with Sridevi that sums up the director's romantic style.
Darr (1993): psychological thriller and his first film with Shah Rukh Khan.
Dil To Pagal Hai (1997): romantic musical with Shah Rukh Khan and one of his biggest hits.
Veer-Zaara (2004): long-distance romance with Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta.

Trivia

Family ties

His elder brother B. R. Chopra was also a filmmaker, and through that connection Yash Chopra was the uncle of Ravi Chopra and Karan Johar.

A fast shoot

Ittefaq (1969), a thriller based on a Gujarati play, was shot in a month on a low budget. It was a slow starter at the box office but eventually became a hit and won him his second Filmfare Award for Best Director.