RIP Yash Chopra: Sridevi's tribute to her mentor, father-figure, producer and director: October 2012

 

A day seeped in grief and darkness, Oct 21, 2012. One of Indian cinema's greatest producer/directors, Yash Chopra, is no more.

Sridevi tweets, "Deeply saddened by the shocking news of Yashji passing away, he was full of warmth & affection whenever we met, he will be missed forever."

As the producer/director of Sridevi's most iconic films Chandni and Lamhe, Yash Chopra and Sri had a mutual admiration society going for decades. Not only was he a champion of her great acting, he was never shy of praising his muse often.

We have an entire archive of Yash Chopra - Sridevi combo here.

Not only the films with Sri, Yash Chopra truly made Hindi cinema's greatest films - and we don't just mean, his oft celebrated romances. Be it Deewar, Kabhi Kabhi, Silsila or Mashaal, Trishul, Ittefaq, he truly was one of the greatest and most versatile directors of ALL time. RIP Yashji. Your films will live on forever..

FIRST PERSON: Sridevi

Yashji was Indian cinema's king of romance who had the most aesthetic and poetic ways of presenting love on celluloid. His film defined love, poetry, feelings and passion in the most wonderful form of imagination.

I have become too numb to react to the news of his demise. I recently met him at Amitji's birthday bash. He was full of energy and joyful as ever. He had also come for the premiere of my film English Vinglish along with Pam (Pamela Chopra) Aunty. The film finished at 2 am and he walked up to me and said, "That's why you waited for so long (to make a comeback)".

Personally, I have lost a father figure who made me work in some of the most memorable films in the history of Indian cinema. As I talk to you about him, my mind goes back to the day when I first met Yashji, who had come to me with the script of Chandni. He narrated every detail of the film. He knew what he wanted and he was intuitive that the film would be remembered as one of the most decorative and romantic films on Indian screen. I had heard that he had the most simplistic way of handling his unit and he was extremely gentle with his actors. But, I had to work with him to know that he was so easy with his ideas. When he thought of making Lamhe, everyone told him that it was a risk. When he narrated the story to me, I liked it for its uniqueness and I told him that it was  ahead of its time. "That' the reason I want to make the film," he had said.

There will never be any other filmmaker who can narrate stories on relationships as beautifully as he did. We can never have another Yash Chopra School of films.

As told to Priyanka Srivastava