Celebrated filmmaker B R Chopra dies at 94

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | Mumbai
At 3.30 in the early hours of Wednesday morning, 94-year-old legendary film-maker Baldev Raj Chopra complained of breathlessness. His only son Ravi, also a film-maker in his own right, who lives in the same bungalow as his father did in Juhu, took charge.

Besides getting adequate medical attention, Ravi also summoned his two sisters, Bina and Shashi, brother-in-law Raj Tilak and uncle Yash Chopra. And though the family did their best, the doyen of Bollywood cinema passed away six hours later.

As word of the veteran film-maker's death spread, Bollywood was in a state of shock. Within minutes director Madhur Bhandarkar had called off a party to celebrate the success of his movie Fashion.

At 11 am, the body of the film-maker was bathed and brought to the hall of the sprawling B R House, a landmark in Juhu. Veteran actor Dilip Kumar recorded his condolence message at his home in Bandra and Amitabh Bachchan, who is away from Mumbai, sent his heartfelt condolences to the Chopras.

Financiers Manmohan Shetty and Bharat Shah, actresses Rani Mukherjee and Lara Dutta, film-makers Ramesh Sippy, Abbas Mustan and Anil Sharma, television actor Nitish Bharadwaj (who had played Krishna in Chopra's telesaga Mahabharat) and Bollywood actors Deepak Parashar and Navin Nischol and several others came to pay their respects.

At 4.30 pm, the body was brought out covered in garlands and wreaths of red roses and white lilies and boarded on a green truck decorated with yellow-and-orange marigolds. Yash Chopra, wearing a prominent red tilak on his forehead, personally supervised all funeral arrangements.

As the pandit chanted the gayatri mantra, a tear-filled industry watched close family members board the truck to accompany the veteran filmmaker on his last journey. The traffic in Juhu was backed up for as far as three miles; and the police had a tough time controlling star-gazers gathered outside the imposing brown gates of the bungalow.

Photographers and OB vans added to the chaos. By the time the truck reached the Vile Parle crematorium on S V Road, life on the route between Juhu and Vile Parle had ground to a virtual halt.

Yash Chopra, the youngest of the eight Chopra siblings, who started his directorial career with Dhool Ka Phool under his brother BR's watchful eye, always said, "He was more a father to me than a brother."