Yash Chopra

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.

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).

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.

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 1973, the Chopra brothers separated, with Yash Chopra founded his studio, Yash Raj Films, and launched it with Daag (1973), a successful melodrama about a polygamous man.

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.

He then entered one of his best phases with two Amitabh Bachchan classics: Deewaar (1975) and Sometimes (1976).

In the 1980s, Chopra went through a rough time.

Two of his melodramas, Series of Events (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.

Yash Chopra had planned a big budget African film in 1983. This was even before he started shooting for Mashaal. He signed Dilip Kumar,Sunny Deol and Anil Kapoor. The project was going to on the level of Hollywood. Yash Chopra had to shelve the film due to the government not giving him the required permission needed.

In 1986, Yash Chopra was planning on producing a television serial titled Khazana. He wanted Moushami Chatterji for it. The plans were eventually dropped.

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.

Gulshan Kumar had launched a film titled " Mohabbatien" in the 1990's. This was to be directed by Yash Chopra. The film was eventually shelved.

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.

Tradition (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.

Brother in law Gava produced the film Karobaar in 2000.

Member of jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2006.