I'd like to die with my boots on: Yash Chopra

I'd like to die with my boots on: Yash Chopra
Saturday, August 28, 2004 14:10 IST
By Santa Banta News Network

As he readies for the release 'Veer Zaara', the film analysts say might be directorial swansong, Bollywood mogul Yash Chopra has said he is not finished just yet.

"I would like to die with my boots on, making films as long as I can," 72-year-old Chopra told BBC World in an episode of a special series called "Bollywood Bosses".

"Dhoom" made under his banner, with Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham and Uday Chopra has just received rave reviews but what is most anticipated the Shahrukh Khan-Preity Zinta-Rani Mukherjee starrer "Veer Zaara".

The India-Pakistan love story is at the moment Bollywood's most anticipated film, with Zinta calling it an epic.

"Something like this has never been seen on Indian screens before, it's historic," Zinta told earlier.

As Hindi cinema's best-known living director, Chopra is a legend. His style of sensitive romance has captured the hearts of millions of moviegoers.

He has been in the industry for more than 50 years, directed more than 20 films, many of them cult classics and created a dedicated audience for his films.

Often called "The King of Romance", Chopra has made films like "Deewar", "Kabhie Kabhie", "Chandni", "Darr", "Dil" and "Dil To Pagal Hai".

His son Aditya made "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge" under the family Yashraj Films banner, which went on to become one of the most successful films ever made in Bollywood.

DDLJ, as it is popularly called, opened up the overseas market for Hindi films drawing huge audiences in Britain and the US.

Once encouraged to pursue an engineering degree, Chopra instead decided to join his elder brother in the family film production business. He was taken on trial for six months.

Seven years later, he made his directorial debut in "Dhool Ka Phool."

The five films that he made under his brother's banner were each radical in their own way. If "Dhool Ka Phool" dealt with illegitimate children, "Waqt" had a lost and found plot that became a Bollywood formula. "He has always tried to make films, and I respect him for that, which are sensible, intelligent but at the same time interesting," said lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar about Chopra.

With Akhtar, Chopra made the epic "Deewar", which gave Indian cinema a new legend - Amitabh Bachchan, as the "angry young man."

It was gritty, grimy and completely different from the Yash Chopra look.

"There was a lot of dissatisfaction at the way the system was working," said Amitabh Bachchan about the theme of "Deewar". "The youth therefore needed to take the system in their hands.

Chopra has always been able to bring a nee perspective to his cinema, like in his "Darr," he had the upcoming actor Shahrukh Khan as a maniacal lover.

"I think the biggest strength is that he trusts his actors completely. There is no interpretation confusion," said Khan, who is now a superstar largely thanks to Chopra's films.

Shahrukh was the star of DDLJ and then "Dil To Pagal Hai", which was directed by Chopra when he was 65 but is credited to be freshest film made in India at the time.

Of his magic of "glamourous realism", Chopra has this to say.

"Over the years the change is mostly in technique. Better sound, better equipment, better photography. I believe the machines doesn't matter, the men behind machines matter.

"In Indian films, if it doesn't have the Indian sensibility, the touch of Indian traditions, it will not be a big hit."

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