Yash Chopra

Yash Raj Chopra (27 September 1932 – 21 October 2012) was an Indian director and film producer who worked in Hindi films. The founding chairman of the film production and distribution company Yash Raj Films, Chopra was the recipient of several awards, including six National Film Awards and 11 Filmfare Awards. He is considered among the best Indian filmmakers. For his contributions to film, the Government of India honoured him with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2001, and the Padma Bhushan in 2005. British Academy of Film and Television Arts presented him with a lifetime membership, making him the first Indian to receive the honour. Chopra began his career as an assistant director to I. S. Johar and his elder brother, B. R. Chopra. He made directorial debut with Dhool Ka Phool in 1959, a melodrama about illegitimacy, and followed it with the social drama Dharmputra (1961). Chopra rose to prominence after directing the commercially and critically successful drama, Waqt (1965), which pioneered the concept of ensemble casts in Bollywood. In 1971, he founded his own production company, Yash Raj Films, whose first production was Daag (1973), 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 Deewaar (1975), which established Amitabh Bachchan as the leading actor in Bollywood; the romantic drama Kabhie Kabhie (1976) and Trishul (1978). This was followed by a period of professional setback from the late 1970s to 1989.

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