Mumbai, Oct 21: One of Bollywood's living legends, filmmaker Yash Chopra passed away today in Mumbai's Lilawati Hospital, after fighting a battle with the deadly dengue fever. Yash Chopra was admitted to hospital on October 11 after it was found that he was suffering from dengue. His blood platelets level had come down alarmingly low.Yash Chopra's family members were with him by the bedside when he took his last breath. Film star rani Mukherjee alongwith her mother had gone to see Yash Chopra at around 2 pm. The legendary director was declared dead by doctors at around 5 pm , due to multi-organ failure caused by declining platelet count. Chopra has been in critical condition since Saturday night.Yash Chopra's death comes at a time when his latest romantic film Jab Tak Hai Jaan was scheduled to release this Diwali. The film starring Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif was made, after Yash Chopra, at the age of 80, decided to don the director's hat again. This was to be his last film. Yash Raj Chopra was born on September 27, 1932 in Lahore, then in undivided India. He began his career as an assistant director to I. S. Johar and his elder brother B R Chopra. Yash Chopra made his directorial debut with Dhool Ka Phool in 1959, a melodrama about illegitimacy and followed it with the hard-hitting social drama Dharmputra (1961). Encouraged by the success of both films, the Chopra brothers made several more movies together during the late fifties and sixties. Chopra then rose to prominence after the commercially and critically successful drama, Waqt (1965), which pioneered the concept of multi-starters in Bollywood.In 1973, Chopra founded his own production company, Yash Raj Films, and launched it with Daag: A Poem of Love (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 Deewar (1975) which established Amitabh Bachchan as the "angry young man" of Bollywood, the romantic drama Kabhi Kabhie (1976) and Trishul (1978). eighties marked a professional setbacks in Chopra's career as several films he directed and produced in that period failed to leave a mark at the Indian box office, notably Silsila (1981), Mashaal (1984) and Vijay (1988). However, in 1989, Chopra directed the commercially and critically successful cult film Chandni which became instrumental in ending the era of violence in Bollywood and bringing back music into Hindi films.Chopra then directed and produced the cult classic Lamhe in 1991. Considered by critics and Chopra himself as his best work to date. The film was critically acclaimed and became one of the biggest Bollywood hits in the overseas market. Chopra followed it with the box-office hit and trend setter Darr (1993). Starring the then-débutant Shahrukh Khan, it showed a sympathetic look at obsessive love and defied the image of the conventional hero. Since then, Chopra directed three more romantic films, all starring Khan; Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Veer-Zaara (2004) and Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012) before he announced his retirement from directing in 2012. Chopra is chairman and founder of both the motion picture production and distribution company Yash Raj Films which ranks as India's biggest production company as of 2006 and the Yash Raj Studios.Chopra's career has spanned over five decades and over 50 films.He is considered among one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of Hindi cinema. Chopra has won several film awards, including six National Film Awards and eleven Filmfare awards including four Filmfare Award for Best Director. The Indian government honoured him with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2001 and the Padma Bhushan in 2005 for his contributions towards Indian cinema.
Updated on: October 21, 2012 20:30 IST
