Yash Chopra’s eldest son, Aditya Chopra, has been the torchbearer of the young generation of filmmakers of India.

The young Aditya, born in 1971, became an avid film buff from his early childhood. Films were in the genes of the young movie fanatic. His greatest learning has been his vast viewing of films. He started his film career by assisting Yash Chopra in Yash Raj Films’ ‘Chandni’ (1989), ‘Lamhe’ (1991) and ‘Darr’ (1993).

Combined with his father’s encouragement and a redoubtable flair for creativity, Aditya Chopra directed his first film, at the young age of 23. Released on 20th October 1995, ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ became one of the largest grossers in Indian film history.

His contribution included story, screenplay and dialogue in addition to direction. He won every conceivable award for this film, including the President’s Gold Medal for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’, or DDLJ as it is fondly called, entered its 500th week of continuous play in theatres on 13th May 2005. DDLJ remains the longest running film in the history of Indian cinema, as it passes one milestone after another, and is presently running in its 10th year.

He is hailed as the youngest ever director to enter the History Books of Indian Cinema.
The British Film Institute also commissioned a book on this record-breaking film, under BFI Modern Classics series. This is the first Hindi film to be chosen in this series of critical studies of international films produced over the last three decades, reflecting the enormous impact this movie had on global Indian audiences.

Aditya Chopra also wrote the screenplay and dialogues of ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’ (1997), directed by Yash Chopra. A sensitively written film on love and friendship, it was one of the most successful films of the year and he also won the Filmfare Award for ‘Best Dialogue’ for it.
Aditya Chopra’s second film as a director, ‘Mohabbatein’ (2000) was a worthy successor to his first film and was one of the top grossing films of the year. Even now, at this young age, he has amazed all opinion makers with his mature sensitivity in handling of his themes.

In 2004, Aditya Chopra donned the mantle of producer and created ‘Hum Tum’ and ‘Dhoom’, both of which achieved critical and commercial success and were amongst the highest grossing Hindi films of the year. In fact, both these films have earned accolades for their marketing strategies, spearheaded by Aditya Chopra.
He also co-produced and wrote the story, screenplay & dialogues of the biggest release of 2004, ‘Veer-Zaara’ – one of the most-awaited films of the year. It instantly broke box-office records for the year, worldwide. Aditya Chopra also won the Filmfare Award for Best Story and Best Dialogue for Veer-Zaara.

In 2005, his success story went even a step further with two of the biggest grossers of the year ‘Bunty aur Babli’ and ‘Salaam Namaste’. The year culminated in the hip and contemporary ‘Neal ‘n’ Nikki’.

Aditya Chopra personally oversees all creative and technical aspects of all the activities of the company and has created a formidable team of creative and technical talent, recognized probably as the best in India. This in-house pool of talent forms the core creative team, working on all its future films.

Aditya Chopra, as a producer and creative head of Yash Raj Films, has launched various successful directors in the course of the last 3 years – each one a popular figure now in their own right and each one making a series of films for Yash Raj Films. His endeavour to bring in even more directors into the fold continues.

He has imbibed from his father, not only his sense of creativity and aesthetics, but an astute business acumen. As Vice-Chairman of Yash Raj Films, he is the driving force behind all the expansion plans and visions of the company.

Aditya Chopra remains one of the most charismatic success stories of Indian Cinema and is ingeniously paving the path for Yash Raj Films to be one of the majors in the world.

      
The only two interviews given by Aditya Chopra till date