Yash Chopra

Yash Chopra (known as Yash Chopra: Fifty Years in Indian Cinema in India) is a biography written by the British professor and author Rachel Dwyer, chronicling the life and career of the Indian filmmaker Yash Chopra. The book details Chopra's birth in 1932 in Lahore, his career both as a director and producer, and his 1970 marriage to the then-playback singer Pamela, with whom he had two sons Aditya and Uday. The British Film Institute published Yash Chopra on 29 April 2002 in the United Kingdom and Roli Books did so on 30 July in India. While writing All You Want is Money, All You Need is Love: Sexuality and Romance in Modern India (2000), Dwyer saw Chopra on a televised interview in 1993, which aired following the release of Darr. She watched the film and was impressed by it. She subsequently conceived a biography about the filmmaker and with some difficulty held meetings to interview him. Upon its release, the book received mixed reviews, with Dwyer's writing garnering the most appreciation, but her literal translation of Chopra's interviews from Hindi and Urdu to English generated critical negative responses. Summary Yash Chopra includes seven chapters: "Yash Chopra: Cinema and Biography", "From Assistant to Director", "The Founding of Yash Raj Films", "The Amitabh Bachchan Films", "The Lean Years", "Romantic Films", and "Production". The book begins with Yash Chopra's birth on 27 September 1932 in Lahore to the Central Public Works Department officer Lal Vilayati Raj Chopra and Draupadi (died 1979). He has six siblings, including one sister, Vimla (born 1920), and five brothers: Hansraj (1902–64), Baldev Raj (1914–2008), Kuldeep Raj (born 1916), Dharam Raj (born 1924), and Rajkumar (born 1928). After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1950 in Jalandhar, Chopra joined his brother, Baldev Raj, a filmmaker in Bombay. Baldev Raj subsequently offered him the opportunity to direct Dhool Ka Phool, which marked his directorial debut. The film was released in May 1959 and emerged as a commercial success. The financially successful romance, Waqt (1965), won him his first Filmfare Award for Best Director.