B.R. Chopra

B.R. Chopra

producer, director, writer

B.R. Chopra was born on Apr 22, 1914 in British India. B.R. Chopra's big-screen debut came with Afsana directed by B.R. Chopra in 1951. B.R. Chopra is known for Baghban directed by Ravi Chopra, Amitabh Bachchan stars as Raj Malhotra and Hema Malini as Pooja Malhotra. B.R. Chopra has got 7 awards and 8 nominations so far. The most recent award B.R. Chopra achieved is Indian Telly Awards. The upcoming new movie B.R. Chopra plays is Pati Patni Aur Woh which will be released on Dec 06, 2019.

One of India's most respected film personalities, Baldev Raj Chopra (better known as B.R. Chopra) has been an architect of what is now known as the golden era of the Bollywood industry. Having converted offbeat stories into immortal classics like Waqt (1965) and Naya Daur (1957), he commands high regard in the world film fraternity. The BR Chopra Mahabharata(1988) was nominated for Uptron awards under for several categories. Pankaj Dheer won the Uptron Award for Best Actor defeating Arun Govil and others in that category. Mukesh Khanna won the Best Supporting Actor for people's choice. Nitish Bharadwaj won the Best Supporting Actor defeating Sunil Lahri and othersB.R. Chopra was born in Lahore, 1914, to an accountant in the PWD administration of the British Punjab administration. After graduating, he did his M.A. degree in English Literature from Lahore University. . Having a deep-rooted fascination for films, he switched over from a higher education to film journalism, surprising his family. He began his celluloid career writing and editing film reviews for the Cine Herald journal.When the partition of India occurred in 1947, B.R. became a victim of communal riots. His house having been burnt down, he migrated to Bombay to live up to his dreams. In 1949, he produced his first film Karwat (1949). Unfortunately, it turned out to be a flop. In 1951, he tried again as the producer and director of the film Afsana (1951) and hit gold. His movie, a tale of mistaken identity with Ashok Kumar in a double role, was a runaway hit and went on to celebrate its silver jubilee.Encouraged by this success, B.R. formed his production company, B.R. Films, in 1955, and started off on a roll with the release of Ek-Hi-Rasta (1956), a drama about widow remarriage. He churned out a string of successful films, the most notable being Naya Daur (1957), Sadhna (1958), Kanoon (1960), Gumrah (1963) and Hamraaz (1967). He also gave his younger brother, Yash Chopra, his first directorial opportunity with the box-office hit Dhool Ka Phool (1959) and in the subsequent years Yash made four more films for B.R., including Waqt (1965) and Ittefaq (1969).B.R. has always endeavored to make socially relevant films, which at the same time try to cater to popular sentiment. For instance, Naya Daur (1957) told the story of a traditional rural community threatened with modernism and mechanism; B.R. perceives mechanism as evil and has the protagonist, a horse carriage rider, defeat an automobile in a race! B.R. has also made films that were regarded as ahead of their time - Kanoon (1960) was a courtroom drama without any songs at all (music being essential of all Hindi films, this was a novel technique); _Gumrah (1963)_qv told the tale of a woman resuming her affair after marriage; and Ittefaq (1969) showed the heroine as a murderess of her own husband!B.R. continued to make films into the 1970s and 1980s, and met success with Insaf Ka Tarazu (1980), focusing on the issue of rape, and Nikaah (1982), a Muslim love triangle. His son Ravi did try to keep the banner going but none of the films did well except for Aaj Ki Awaz (1984), another courtroom tale, and the family epic Baghban (2003). However, B.R. Films turned to television in 1985 and made several successful television programs, the most successful of the being the serial Mahabharat (1988), based on the Hindu epic. Perhaps the most popular serial in the history of Indian cinema, it entered the Guinness Book of World Records by registering 96% world viewer ship. In 1999, B.R. was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his contribution to Indian Cinema. It was another triumph for the movie mogul...

  • Birthday

    Apr 22, 1914
  • Place of Birth

    Ludhiana, Punjab, British India

Known For

Awards

7 wins & 8 nominations

Indian Telly Awards
2005
Lifetime Contribution to Indian Television
Winner - Special Award
Filmfare Awards
2004
Winner - Lifetime Achievement Award
2004
Best Film
Winner - Lifetime Achievement Award
1962
Best Director
Winner - Filmfare Award
1962
Best Film
Winner - Filmfare Award
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Movies & TV Shows

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Movies