[imagebrowser id=37]
MUMBAI: One facet about the Bollywood film fraternity, which a lot of people are unaware of, is that it is a very united community.
Over the past few days, after the sudden and tragic demise of legendary filmmaker Yash Chopra on 21st October, we have seen the entire film fraternity unite in their grief. The entire industry has rallied around the family, to support them in their time of loss and bereavement.
Right from Chopra’s favourite heroes Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, whose careers were sculpted by Chopra, to close friends of the family, we have seen Bollywood drop other activities and rush to the side of the Chopra clan.
As soon as news of Chopra’s demise became known, superstars like Salman Khan, Shah Rukh, Akshay Kumar, Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan etc, all rushed to the hospital.
The funeral too saw many A-list stars paying their respects to the veteran director and producer. Since then, there has been an outpouring of support for the Chopra family, with stars standing vigil at the Chopra residence to give support to Yashji’s wife Pamela and sons Aditya and Uday.
As expected, at Yashji’s chautha ceremony too on Thursday, a host of Bollywood bigwigs showed up to pay their respects to the man behind blockbusters like ‘Lamhe’, ‘Silsila’, ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’, ‘Veer Zaara’, ‘Chandni’ and most his recent yet-to-be-released ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’. The chautha was held at Yash Raj Studios.
Our shutterbugs spotted celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Hrithik Roshan, Soha Ali Khan, Ranveer Singh, Ameesha Patel, legendary actors Anupam Kher with wife Kirron Kher, Prem Chopra and Shashi Kapoor. We also spotted industrialist Adi Godrej, filmmakers Mukesh Bhatt, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Boney Kapoor and Ramesh Sippy with his wife.
Bollywood lyricists and close friends of Chopra, Javed Akhtar and Gulzar were also seen. Bipasha Basu, Shatrugan Sinha and Sameera Reddy were also present at the chautha.
Our lensmen also witnessed Jitendra, Vinod Khanna, Subhash Ghai, Sonakshi Sinha, Zoya Akhtar, Madhur Bhandarkar and Ramesh Taurani.
It was a somber day, with all the stars visibly upset and shaken up by the loss of such a towering presence of the Indian Film Industry. Everyone was seen donning shades of white, as a mark of respect for the late filmmaker.
Yash Chopra’s film as director is all set for a Diwali release on 13th November.
The film stars Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma.
More on Yash Chopra’s demise:
