Yash Chopra to be cremated today, Bollywood in shock, mourns his demise

Mumbai: Filmmaker Yash Chopra's funeral will take place on Monday at 3 pm at Mumbai's Pawan Hans crematorium. Before that friends, admirers and fans will get to pay their last respects, from 9 am to 12 noon, at the Yash Raj Studios, where his body will be kept. Yash Chopra died on Sunday evening at a Mumbai hospital, where he was being treated for complications due to dengue fever.

The film industry was shocked by the demise of the legend. The actor, who plays the lead in Yash Chopra's last film 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan', Shah Rukh Khan tweeted, "Whenever my loved ones depart, I feel a part of me extinguishes itself with them. Will there come a day that I will no longer have a bit of myself to let go of? And then the thought follows that every time they have taken some of me with them onto their last journey, I have found a fragment of them left inside me too. I will always have some love to give and I will always be both emptied and replenished by the loved ones I lose. I keep u wıth me Yashji and I mıss u too Yashji...lots."

Music director AR Rahman, who has given the music for 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan' said he was 'shocked beyond words'. "I'm in shock and numb, can't believe the news, the man who immortalised love, Mr Yash Chopra is no more. May his soul rest in peace. My deepest condolences to the family," tweeted actor Akshay Kumar.

Actor Kamal Hassan wrote on Facebook, "You won't be hearing this now. I wish I had told you this while you were alive. We admired you a lot, we got our confidence out of your work. I never clearly told you this, It's not because I was conceited or narcissistic; sometimes we were so awed by the superior personality that you were."

Chopra had celebrated his 80th birthday on September 27. 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan' was his final film as director. Regarded as the country's king of celluloid romance, Chopra has also proved his mettle with intensely emotional and tragic movies, many of which went on to become box-office blockbusters.

Chopra had been admitted to a hospital in Mumbai with an attack of dengue, a spokesperson for his company said. Chopra attended actor Amitabh Bachchan's 70th birthday party with wife Pamela on October 11. Born in 1932 in Lahore, now in Pakistan, the film-maker was favoured by leading Indian actors with his movies seen as a sure-fire way to become a hit with audiences.

Chopra recently reminisced about a Bollywood career that spanned five decades, narrating how he came to Mumbai with 200 rupees in his pocket, hoping to make it as a film director. Chopra's disclosure, made at an event marking his 80th birthday with actor Shah Rukh Khan by his side, took the Indian film industry by surprise. "I think I've had enough, Shah Rukh," Chopra replied when Khan asked him about his next project. "I have always lived according to what my heart tells me," he said. "I won't make any film after Jab Tak Hai Jaan."

Since then, Chopra has made some of Indian cinema's most memorable films - such as 'Deewar', 'Kabhi Kabhie', 'Silsila' and 'Chandni'. His flamboyant style of film-making, movies filmed in exotic locales and mellifluous music became a hallmark, endearing him to filmgoers. Chiffon sarees and the Swiss Alps are so synonymous with Chopra's style of film-making that Switzerland Tourism even offered visitors a guided tour of the places where the director filmed some of his most famous songs and scenes.

Riding on his success, Chopra established Yash Raj Films, one of Bollywood's biggest production houses, churning out at least three movies a year. In November, the film studio announced its foray into Hollywood, signing on actors such as Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman for its overseas productions. Chopra also produced Indian cinema's longest-running blockbuster, 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' (1995), which marked the debut of his son Aditya as director.