Yash Chopra, separated from his brother's company, created his own Yash Raj Films in 1971. Each film released was a mega-event for Yash Raj Films, from the first, Daag (1973) to his 1997 hit, Dil To Paagal Hai. Fans usually label him the eternal romantic and had been regarded as the King of Romance. His directed features include some of the classic films of Indian film history such as Deewar and Kabhie Kabhie.
Yash respected all his heroines and had been linked to quite a few of them, such as Sadhana, Nanda and Mumtaz. This affection had shown up on screen as a deep response depiction of his actresses: Sharmila Tagore and Raakhee in Daag; Sridevi in Chaandani and Lamhe; Madhuri Dixit and Karishma Kapoor in Dil To Paagal Hai. These stunning leading ladies have rarely looked less than ravishing on screen.
The man who had been a tireless innovator has changed the look of the mainstream Bollywood cinema. He is one of the few old-school filmmakers to have successfully made the change to a new-age entertainment entrepreneur and Yash Raj Films has been taking the essential steps in this direction. Another known aspect of his over 40-year career is obviously how he’s always worked with the biggest leading men of his time to best results — from Ashok or Rajendra Kumar to Shah Rukh Khan.
The complexity of love is Chopra's favourite theme. He adored the stories about love triangles such as Daag, Chaandani and Dil To Paagal Hai and quadrangles such as Kabhie Kabhie and Silsila. As well as movies dealing with prohibited themes like premarital relationships such as Dhool Ka Phool, extra-marital affairs such as Silsila and a young girl falling for a much older man such as Lamhe.
Illustrating action and violence is not normally Chopra's specialty, but some of Amitabh Bachchan's best action roles have been in Chopra's movies, for example Deewar, Trishul and Kaala Patthar. Glamorous interiors and vibrant outdoor settings captured through excellent film making i.e. Holland in Silsila and Germany in Dil To Paagal Hai. This added thriving visuals to his films and with his superb musical sense and the Yash Chopra magic is complete. Songs like Hum Aur Tum (Daag), Kabhie Kabhie Mere Dil Mein (Kabhie Kabhie), Dekha Ek Khwab (Silsila) and Tere Mere Hothon Pe (Chaandani) have proved his mastery over song picturisation.
Mumbai Mafia:
The Dark Side to Bollywood
Reports show that new threats were issued a while ago against leading Bollywood producers, including Yash Chopra. In the past, Abu Salem has been known to collect extortionate amounts from producers and stars. For some months, he has been in a Lisbon jail on criminal charges and is awaiting deportation to India. Lately, someone in the group did not lose much time in issuing threats to producers like Yash Chopra, whose most recent film Veer Zaara is a hit at the box office.
In recent years, the local mafia has gone streets ahead of the crime syndicates. The mafia-nexus are featured more on the news than the mafia alone. The links are now clearly in the open. While most gangsters are threatening producers and actors abroad, many of their agents in the appearance of producers, directors, financiers and even music directors have been arrested.
Producers Ram Gopal Verma, J.P. Dutta, Subhash Ghai and many others asked for police protection. Aamir Khan and successful director of Lagaan, Ashutosh Gowarikar, were also on the threatening list.
Yash Chopra: He recently received a threat from the Mumbai mafia
Why did the gangland bosses focus on the world of Hindi cinema and directors such as Yash Chopra? With the splitting up of the gangs and the emergence of new ones, overall control was in the hands of several gangsters. More funds were needed to function the gangs. The new bosses were gluttonous and adapted to a lavish lifestyle. Traditionally, the corrupt builders’ lobby in Mumbai had provided finances to the mafia. With the slump in real estate business, there were insufficient funds from the builders. New sources had to be found, which unfortunately led them to target Bollywood.
The film industry had defeated threats from television and cable channels. The number of flops was on the rise, while the ‘hits’ made an astounding amount of money. There was the lure of overseas markets and rights for the music of Yash’s films. The recording companies were making massive profits and even average films were making pounds and dollars in the West.
Mumbai had always witnessed a love-hate relationship between crime and films. To start with, one saw ‘gangsters’ and their molls only on the screen. Remember the menacing K.N.Singh who only had to raise his eyebrows to make one’s legs go weak? The intrusion of gangsterism into films began and ended with their portrayal on the screen. Bollywood repaid them with films on the lives of some of the leading dons.
Bollywood accepted gangsters as long as they did not resort to anti-national activities. Mastan, Lala and Mudaliar were ‘respectable’ gangsters with friends in the industry. Some of our movie makers retained a magnificent obsession for the gangsters. Therefore a series of ‘real-life’ mafia films followed such as Vastav, Company, Satya and so on.
Representatives for the industry pointed out that the rising production costs had made financial fund limited, making some of the filmmakers turns to the mafia. "It is not easy when your hero demands Rs. 3, 000 and your heroine wants only slightly less," ranted a producer, "At this rate, not many can make films under Rs. 15, 000." Unless film production costs come down, the mafia influence will not cease.
However, Bollywood giants Yash Chopra and Ram Gopal Varma have denied reports that they have received threats from the underworld. According to reports, the underworld was making calls to the two filmmakers for oversees rights of their films "Veer-Zaara" and "Naach". Chopra himself seems far from rattled or scared.
So, how did the story of underworld activities in Bollywood surface again?
According to an inside source, "Extortion threats are no longer an issue. All filmmakers have learnt to live with it.
"In recent times, the threat has diminished considerably. Such stories will only aggravate the situation. We'll have all sorts of criminal elements claiming extortion sums on behalf of X or Y gang.”
You have read both sides of the story; one group says the Mumbai Mafia is rising. Whilst, on the other hand extremely popular directors such as Yash Chopra play down the threats. Who is really living in Bollywood la-la land?
The Evaluative Commentary
By Salma Khan
1) Briefly summarises and justifies the conclusions arrived at by your group on the characteristics of the publications and pieces involved.
On the background feature article on Yash Chopra's films:
This article explains the background to Yash Chopra, how he rose to fame and success. We decided to include a photo of him in the article so it makes the reader feel as if they know him personally. We decided to focus on the main theme of his films which is love. He has been labelled as the "eternal romantic". The group listed many of his successful hits at the box office to show the reader that he is not just a one hit wonder. The majority of Yash Chopra's films are based on the complexity of love. However, we also showed that he does focus on action and violence but very rarely.
Review of Yash Chopra's film Veer Zaara:
We decided to set out this article as a proper film review with the star rating, details of the cast and crew. We reviewed the story by writing a synopsis of it. This kind of style would give the reader a better understanding into the complex of the story especially if they do not understand Bollywood films in the first place. The conclusion we got from the article on Veer Zaara was that it proved to be a massive hit for Yash Chopra. It was helped by hiring three of the most popular Bollywood stars for it. We concentrated on the film Veer Zaara as it was a fairly new release and the outcome at the box office was popular.
Mumbai Mafia:
This article was written to show the darker side of Bollywood and what the stars have to go through behind the scenes. We concentrated on showing both sides of the stories, and to show how the stars really feel. An example is Yash Chopra playing down the threat. However, on the other hand, other stars such as Aamir Khan were asking for police protection. The article's aim was to try and show that it isn't all just about a "lovey-dovey film"; there is a much gloomier side to it beneath the surface.
The obituary of Yash Chopra:
We used information from the Internet to give us an idea of a layout that we could use. The following website was used: (). We included some background of his success as a film director and about his family.
2) Explains and justifies in more detail the particular stylistic and structural characteristics of your own piece.
Mumbai Mafia article
I decided to write the article on the Mumbai mafia to show a dark side to the Bollywood industry. The article shows that it isn't all about love and a "happy ever ending" story. The corruption and threats Bollywood stars have to go through are that real, that stars need police protection. The other articles written are focused Yash Chopra's romance films. This article shows the opposite, the gloomy side to fame.
I included information such as "While most gangsters threatening producers and actors are abroad, many of their agents in the appearance of producers, directors, financiers and even music directors have been arrested". This shows the reader to what extent the mafia are prepared to go to threaten blackmail and gain money from Bollywood stars. I decided to include questions in the article to give the reader a better insight into the mafia world. An example is, "Why did the gangland bosses focus on the world of Hindi cinema and directors such as Yash Chopra?" Money has to come from somewhere in the beginning for the mafia to operate at all. The article shows just how deep the corruption is: " Traditionally, the corrupt builders’ lobby in Mumbai had provided finances to the mafia."
The article was written to show exactly how devious the mafia are. The mafia are hardly talked about in India because of threats to journalists and their families if they print anything against them. Even film directors, and Bollywood stars do not really talk about it openly. Instead directors such as Yash Chopra try and play down the threat, "This is all humbug. There has been no extortion threat at all.
What has happened is that when 'Veer-Zaara' was released, some people claiming to belong to a Muslim fundamentalist organisation said their Qaum (community) has been portrayed in bad light. That's it." (quote taken from http://www.nowrunning.com/news/news.asp?id=2015)
I used information on the Internet to help me write this article against the mafia. I used this website to give me tips on what kind of things to avoid, and how to use quotes. The style I went for was trying to argue against the mafia and what they can potentially get away with. This website was particularly helpful () as it showed how to argue in context, anticipating opposition and expanding the argument.
What I think I have done well is the research side to the articles. I used plenty of websites to get different views of the mafia. This was shown in the article written on the mafia. An example is sources saying stars need and are asking for police protection and then stars such as Yash Chopra playing down the threat. However, I feel I could have improved the articles written and the evaluative commentary by better time management. This was due to other coursework for other modules around the same time.
Evaluative Commentary
By Jayna Patel
Director king Yash Chopra, who has enthralled people for over forty years with his Bollywood blockbusters and proved to have been a highly successful businessman in his own right. His films largely focused on romance and his directed features include some of the most classic films in cinema history. Yash Chopra was known to be a romantic at heart, the affection and the effort he put into his films was depicted on the big screen.
The publication employs many characteristics and it is effective in keeping the reader gripped and connected with the text. Firstly, by outlining what Yash Chopra was famous for and how long he has been in the movie-making industry enables the audience to familiarise themselves with the subject involved.
Firstly, the review basically outlines details, cast, production, music, summary, rating and the review. As a group, we attempted to outline the key concepts which the movie illustrates in Veer Zaara. An effort was made to not overexert ourselves on the film review as we did not want to confuse the reader. Keeping the wording and style straightforward was essential and we had decided to do this for all three pieces.
Although the publication is written for the newspaper Guardian, we've adopted a professional approach yet for a complete stranger would still be understandable for them to read, even if they had never seen a Bollywood movie before.
The first picture is attracting and eye-catching for the reader and you would initially assume that the film regards the couple. The passion in their facial expression is obvious, and for a person that likes emotional romance movies, would urge the reader further. We decided to look on the following website: in order to get hold of the relevant pictures needed for the review.
On the second piece, the background feature article on Yash Chopra's films is a basic outline to what Yash is all about and why he is famous and some of the films that he has created. The photograph at the top of the page indicates that Chopra is a laid-back man. The positioning of his body in the picture specifies that there is no eye-to-eye contact with his audience and so he looks relaxed in his posture. This particular photograph was derived from the website. It was very useful and helped us with our research and findings for the publication.
As for the third publication, the title: Mumbai Mafia; the Dark Side of Bollywood, is effective in welcoming the reader and can be identified easily, if read from a distance. The way in which the article is written is in a more talkative manner. This helps the reader identify with the underlying message and is an intimate style of text.
A person that is familiar with Bollywood movies may or may not be familiar with the names mentioned in the article. One would argue that too many names are mentioned, but the reader may be interested to no the life of an Indian film director.
Halfway through the article, the picture shows a troubled expression on Yash, which is reflective of the text that is written around it. It makes the reader think that the picture was taken while he was being threatened by gangland mobsters. The research and images were taken from the website and was very informative for the completion of this article. The final sentence ends with an underlying question- which is good because it is open ended and keeps the reader wondering.
Finally the Obituary was a very brief recollection of Yash Chopra's Life and what he meant to his loved ones. We attempted to make the Obituary vague yet to the point and in my opinion; I believe this piece does exactly that. The picture, retrieved from comes across as a pleasant photograph. It is obvious to the reader that Yash was a great man, even if they do not read the text. The colours represent the vivid lifestyle that he had and we shall remember him for years to come.
On my own piece, the Background Feature Article on Yash Chopra's Films, I decided to adopt a stylistic account, similar to that of an article in a broadsheet newspaper. This article essentially revolves around the basic knowledge that Yash has created many successful Bollywood movies which captures the mind and heart of the onlooker. The emotional movie brings together Indo-Pak relations which may cause the reader to familiarize themselves with the issues being raised throughout the movie.
The photograph of Yash Chopra at the beginning of the article is so that the reader can recognise what the article is regarding, thus enabling them to then read further if they are still interested.
In the first paragraph describes the late Yash Chopra and what he was initially famous for doing in his career. This invites the reader and enables them to establish who Yash Chopra is and the decision of whether they want to continue reading on further.
For an audience that is familiar with Indian movies, as they go on to read the film titles, they will soon be taken in by the article, and given that Yash Chopra was such a great legend in the directing industry.
Mid-article I go on to describe Yash as being an entertainment entrepreneur and that he has changed the face of the mainstream Bollywood cinema. This is obvious and I have showed the proof of this by adding great images.
What makes the article that I have written so unique is that I have attempted to come across with a professional approach, using various words that do not use normally. Broadsheet newspapers have a sophisticated buyer, who wants to be reading material that is of a high quality standard.
The things that could have been improved on my own piece, the background feature article on Yash Chopra films. The bulk of the publication concentrates largely on the films that Yash has made. For some readers that are unfamiliar with his work, may not understand the wording of the film examples which are given. This may lead the reader to become uninterested in reading the article further.
The organisation and time-keeping was extremely inadequate and we all could have improved in this area of our work. Doing these pieces of work late at night is not a good idea. This maybe our down fall in the grading of our publication.
On the whole, we all found it quite simple to gather our information from relevant sources and findings because all three individuals in the group are familiar with Bollywood movies and we do watch them on a regular basis. I felt that due to this, we could identify more easily with the subject involved and we also got to no him, in reality, as a person.
Evaluative Commentary
By Yogita Solanki
At 72 years old, Yash Chopra is Bollywood's greatest and well known living film maker. He has mastered romance, dramatic lifestyles, memorable moments and melodious music all captured by him in various films with a group of great actors and actresses. The pieces we have written on Yash Chopra reflects his career over forty years, he is one of the few old-school film makers to make it in the new-age entertainment entrepreneur.
The obituary has a lot of information about Yash Chopra and his memorable points in his life so far. We have written the obituary in a way which would capture the reader's attention, entice and inform the reader of the greatest and oldest Bollywood film maker. We have tried to put in all the information possible in short paragraph as we had a limited word count.
The review on Yash Chopra's recent box office hit, Veer Zaara, we felt was easy to write because we had seen the film already and have read the reviews. As the film was astounding, there was a lot to write, and we did not want to leave out anything interesting. This is written in a friendly manner to fascinate the reader by just reading the first few sentences.
The article, Money Making Mogul, is about Yash Chopra and the numerous box office hits he has made. The website has helped us to write about the various different films Yash Raj Films have produced. Due to the fact that we all have seen Yash Chopra's films over the years gave us background knowledge of him and his work, which helped us to write the article. It holds a lot of information of Yash Chopra and his films and it will keep readers wanting to read more. The films that Yash Chopra has produced/directed have only been Bollywood films, therefore some readers may find it difficult to read some of the titles and songs of his work.
Mumbai Mafia; The Dark Side to Bollywood, this article is very interesting because you would not usually think this would happen to producers and stars. The style of writing is very informative and detailed and it is written in a formal way with a twist at the end asking the reader a question. This is the way The Guardian has written their articles.
The photographs are very helpful for the reader, as they would then know that is Yash Chopra. Photographs help to break up the text for the reader, as they are colourful and eye-catching it could persuade the reader to read the article.
My written piece of the review on Yash Chopra's recent film Veer Zaara employs more of a friendlier approach. I have taken the friendlier approach because this would interest the reader and capture their imagination, so that they want to read the full review.
As the film is such a dramatic feature, there are various ways of approaching the review of the film, because of this I had to do through research to conduct the analysis of the review. Already having background knowledge of Yash Chopra and watching his film Veer Zaara had enabled me to write about the review in depth. Looking at film reviews in The Guardian newspaper and online () helped me to set out my review and structure the words according to the newspaper.
Taken the friendlier approach to the review made it easier to write and I think it would be able to engage the reader more into the review than any other piece. I have set out the review in short paragraphs as this is easier for the reader to read the review without feeling it is too long to read. I have tried to write a general overview of the film without going into too much depth about the plot.
The website helped me to review the passionate storyline of Veer Zaara. It had given me a very detailed analysis of the film, which helped me to include points which I had not done so. On the website I looked at various different film reviews and seen the different layouts, photographs and structure. Consequently, I included photographs in my review which would help the reader to imagine would the film would be like if they have not seen previews or the actual film itself.
Another website which has helped me to write the review would be , in this they had written about each character individually, which gave me an insight to each character. This story is very emotional, dramatic, a love legend - a love that grows with separation, deepens with sacrifice. It has been fascinating writing about a film with all these characteristics.
I think that the review could have been better if we had space to write more for it. We had to keep to a word count for each section as we could only write 1, 500 words for the whole publication. Veer Zaara is an extraordinary film, therefore to write a review on this would mean it would have to be longer. It may have been done better by choosing another film which was not as dramatic and emotional as Veer Zaara.
Choosing a film maker which we all had known helped us a lot as we all had some background knowledge and ideas of the work he has produced before we had even started the research.
We need to have kept to our time management to do the publication to the best of our ability, but because of other assignments needing to be handed in at the same time, we were poorly managed.
To summarise this, I think it is well written for The Guardian. It is formal, informative and detailed in many different ways. Even they the word count was very limited and our organisation skills were poor for this piece of work, we have done well.
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