Valentine’s Day 2023: How Yash Chopra changed Bollywood with his unique storytelling

Cinema lovers remember filmmaker Yash Chopra as the ‘King of Romance’. In his career spanning five decades, he gave us multiple hit romantic films that set a template for the next generation of filmmakers. Besides his legendary love stories, the filmmaker is also known for taking up taboo themes.

His 1959 film ‘Dhool Ka Phool’ spoke about an illegitimate child, while his next, ‘Dharmputra’, focused on the Hindi-Muslim dynamic. ‘Waqt’, his first colour film, was the first multi-starrer.
Yash Chopra’s ‘Ittefaq’ (1969) was India’s first song-less film when no one could imagine cinema without songs.

Yash Chopra founded his own production company, Yash Raj Films, in 1970 and its first production was ‘Daag: A Poem of Love’ (1973), a successful melodrama about a man living with two women.

He’s the one who managed to cast Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan and Rekha in 'Silsila' together.

Yash Chopra loved that his leading ladies had something to say about life and society and his films always treated women as equals. His 1989 film ‘Chandni’ spoke about an independent woman who chooses her own path when she doesn’t get the support of her lover.

‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ (1995), produced by Yash Chopra, is one of the biggest blockbusters of Indian cinema. It made Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol one of the most loved onscreen pairs. The Aditya Chopra directorial is one of the longest-running films as it screened for over 1200 weeks in Maratha Mandir theatre in Mumbai.

One of the most iconic scenes of the film is when Raj helped Simran catch the train which marked the beginning of their love story. Almost every song of this movie is associated with some aspect of people's love stories today.

‘DDLJ’, as we lovingly call it, has made us laugh, cry, and fall in love. The film was an attempt by the makers to center both progress and tradition. It made you believe in the idea of love and convinces you that fighting for your love is worth it.

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