Yash Chopra(1932-2012)
- Producer
- Director
- Additional Crew
Labeled the eternal romantic and with one of the best musical senses in
the business, Yash Chopra is arguably
India's most successful director of romantic films. Although he made
action-oriented films like the ever-popular
Deewaar (1975), it is in tackling love
and its various aspects that he has been at his best. One of the few
remaining commercial Indian directors who started their careers in the
1950s, he has successfully moved with the times from the socially
significant Dhool Ka Phool (1959)
to the young and cool
Dil To Pagal Hai (1997).
Yash Chopra was born in Lahore in 1932, to an accountant in the PWD
division of the British Punjab administration, the youngest of eight
children. He began as an assistant director to
I.S. Johar before working with his elder
brother, the legendary B.R. Chopra; while
another brother, Dharam Chopra, worked as
his cameraman. He was given his first directorial opportunity with
Dhool Ka Phool (1959), a melodrama
about illegitimacy; it became a hit and even now remains popular today.
Encouraged by this success, the Chopra brothers made a few more movies
together, the most notable being
Waqt (1965), India's first multi-starrer;
and Ittefaq (1969), a thriller. On the
personal front, Chopra married
Pamela Chopra (née Singh) in 1970, and
they had two children, Aditya Chopra and
Uday Chopra, both working in the film
industry today.
In 1973, the Chopra brothers separated, with Yash Chopra founded his
studio, Yash Raj Films, and launched it with
Daag: A Poem of Love (1973),
a successful melodrama about a polygamous man. He then entered one of
his best phases with two
Amitabh Bachchan classics:
Deewaar (1975) and
Kabhi Kabhie (1976).
These movies set the standard for the 1970s and 1980s, establishing
Bachchan as the greatest and most beloved Indian film star of all time.
His respective roles--a bitter criminal and a sensitive, brooding
poet--are considered to be his greatest performances, although complete
opposites of each other.
In the 1980s, Chopra went through a rough time. Two of his melodramas,
Silsila (1981) and
Faasle (1985); and two action-oriented
films, Mashaal (1984) and
Vijay (1988), flopped at the box office,
although the latter became a critically acclaimed classic years later.
However, he made a comeback with his musical love triangle
Chandni (1989). The film was a huge
success, with great performances by established heroine
Sridevi and action hero
Vinod Khanna. Then came what critics and
Chopra himself considered his best film,
Lamhe (1991), a beautiful film about
cross-generational love. It couldn't survive the box office, however,
due to its incestuous nature.
Parampara (1993), done for an outside
producer, was a misfire, but then came the box-office hit and trend
setter Darr (1993). Starring the
then-débutant Shah Rukh Khan, it showed a
sympathetic look at obsessive love and an emotion often overlooked in
love--fear--and its success catapulted Khan to super-stardom. In 1995,
Chopra turned to production and
Aditya Chopra made his directorial debut
with
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995),
which had the longest-running initial release in cinema history. He
directed one more film,
Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), a love
story set against the theater, which became a huge success and a cult
hit, before he retired from directing. However, in 2004, he made a
grand comeback with Veer-Zaara (2004),
a touching cross-border love story, which he said would be his last
directorial effort.
The ages of the director and playback singer
Lata Mangeshkar, his muse, proved you
need to be young, as well as crazy, at heart, to be a true romantic....
the business, Yash Chopra is arguably
India's most successful director of romantic films. Although he made
action-oriented films like the ever-popular
Deewaar (1975), it is in tackling love
and its various aspects that he has been at his best. One of the few
remaining commercial Indian directors who started their careers in the
1950s, he has successfully moved with the times from the socially
significant Dhool Ka Phool (1959)
to the young and cool
Dil To Pagal Hai (1997).
Yash Chopra was born in Lahore in 1932, to an accountant in the PWD
division of the British Punjab administration, the youngest of eight
children. He began as an assistant director to
I.S. Johar before working with his elder
brother, the legendary B.R. Chopra; while
another brother, Dharam Chopra, worked as
his cameraman. He was given his first directorial opportunity with
Dhool Ka Phool (1959), a melodrama
about illegitimacy; it became a hit and even now remains popular today.
Encouraged by this success, the Chopra brothers made a few more movies
together, the most notable being
Waqt (1965), India's first multi-starrer;
and Ittefaq (1969), a thriller. On the
personal front, Chopra married
Pamela Chopra (née Singh) in 1970, and
they had two children, Aditya Chopra and
Uday Chopra, both working in the film
industry today.
In 1973, the Chopra brothers separated, with Yash Chopra founded his
studio, Yash Raj Films, and launched it with
Daag: A Poem of Love (1973),
a successful melodrama about a polygamous man. He then entered one of
his best phases with two
Amitabh Bachchan classics:
Deewaar (1975) and
Kabhi Kabhie (1976).
These movies set the standard for the 1970s and 1980s, establishing
Bachchan as the greatest and most beloved Indian film star of all time.
His respective roles--a bitter criminal and a sensitive, brooding
poet--are considered to be his greatest performances, although complete
opposites of each other.
In the 1980s, Chopra went through a rough time. Two of his melodramas,
Silsila (1981) and
Faasle (1985); and two action-oriented
films, Mashaal (1984) and
Vijay (1988), flopped at the box office,
although the latter became a critically acclaimed classic years later.
However, he made a comeback with his musical love triangle
Chandni (1989). The film was a huge
success, with great performances by established heroine
Sridevi and action hero
Vinod Khanna. Then came what critics and
Chopra himself considered his best film,
Lamhe (1991), a beautiful film about
cross-generational love. It couldn't survive the box office, however,
due to its incestuous nature.
Parampara (1993), done for an outside
producer, was a misfire, but then came the box-office hit and trend
setter Darr (1993). Starring the
then-débutant Shah Rukh Khan, it showed a
sympathetic look at obsessive love and an emotion often overlooked in
love--fear--and its success catapulted Khan to super-stardom. In 1995,
Chopra turned to production and
Aditya Chopra made his directorial debut
with
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995),
which had the longest-running initial release in cinema history. He
directed one more film,
Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), a love
story set against the theater, which became a huge success and a cult
hit, before he retired from directing. However, in 2004, he made a
grand comeback with Veer-Zaara (2004),
a touching cross-border love story, which he said would be his last
directorial effort.
The ages of the director and playback singer
Lata Mangeshkar, his muse, proved you
need to be young, as well as crazy, at heart, to be a true romantic....