Filmmaker Ravi Chopra, 68, known for popularising Hindu mythology on TV, died on Wednesday afternoon in Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai. He had been reportedly suffering from a severe lung ailment for the last few years. He is survived by his wife and three children.
He will be cremated at Pawan Hans in Vile Parle on Thursday. “The funeral will take place at 11.00am,” a source close to the filmmaker’s family said.
According to the source, many celebrities are expected to attend his funeral.
Chopra made many films and TV shows that showed his impressive range as a filmmaker.
Born in 1946, he hailed from the illustrious Chopra family. His father was late filmmaker B.R. Chopra, and his uncle was late filmmaker Yash Chopra, who directed romantic films such as Kabhi Kabhie, Silsila and Dil Toh Pagal Hai. He was also the cousin of Aditya and Uday Chopra.
He started as an assistant producer of the 1972-release Dastaan, directed by his father.
Chopra began his directorial journey in 1975 with Zameer, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna and Shammi Kapoor.
He went on to work with Bachchan in movies such as Baghban and Baabul. Chopra also produced the Bachchan-starrer Bhoothnath in 2008.
He also teamed up with popular actors like Dilip Kumar, Dharmendra, Raj Babbar and Hema Malini, who considered him family.
Malini took to Twitter to pay tribute to the filmmaker.
“Ravi Chopra is gone, leaving behind a void. Renu [Chopra’s wife] & he were like family & I will miss him. Rest in peace dear friend (sic),” the actress and politician tweeted on Wednesday.
Apart from directing and producing films, he was a writer too. He penned stories for films like The Burning Train and Baabul.
The multi-talented Chopra directed one of the most popular mythological TV shows, Mahabharat. The drama, produced by his father, ran from 1988 to 1990.
He also directed the television mini-series Ramayan, which was aired in 2002.
As an executive producer, his project Cooking with Stella, a light comedy, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009.
If one goes by reports, he was expected to make a small screen comeback with another mythological series titled Vasudev Krishna.
If the audience lauded his work on-screen, he impressed celebrities off-screen too.
Happy New Year director Farah Khan described Ravi Chopra as “one of the nicest, kindest and big-hearted souls”.
Actress Divya Dutta, who worked with Chopra in Baghban, said he was one man who was “full of life”.
Musician Vishal Dadlani called him “one of the most gracious gentlemen”.
Actor Rohit Roy had kind words for the filmmaker. He said Chopra was “definitely the nicest man I’ve worked with in the film industry”.
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