Yash Chopra

Who was Yash Chopra?

Yash Raj Chopra was an Indian film director, script writer and film producer, predominantly working in Hindi cinema.Yash Chopra began his career as an assistant director to I.S. Johar and his elder brother, B.R. Chopra. He made his directorial debut with Dhool Ka Phool in 1959, a melodrama about illegitimacy, and followed it with the social drama Dharmputra.

Encouraged by the success of both films, the Chopra brothers made several more movies together during the late fifties and sixties. Chopra rose to prominence after his commercially and critically successful drama, Waqt, which pioneered the concept of ensemble casts in Bollywood.

In 1973, Chopra founded his own production company, Yash Raj Films, and launched it with Daag: A Poem of Love, a successful melodrama about a polygamous man. His success continued in the seventies, with some of Indian cinema's most successful and iconic films, including the action thriller Deewar, which established Amitabh Bachchan as the leading actor in Bollywood; the romantic drama Kabhie Kabhie and Trishul.

From the late seventies till 1989 marked a professional setback in Chopra's career; several films he produced or directed in that period failed to leave a mark at the Indian box office, notably Doosra Aadmi, Mashaal, Faasle and Vijay. However, in 1989, Chopra directed the commercially and critically successful cult film Chandni, which became instrumental in ending the era of violent films in Bollywood and returning musicals.