Jalandhar November 6:
Grief-stricken Jalandharis remember the kind-heartedness and the cooperative and polite nature of its great son B.R. Chopra who had spent the prime of his life at Mohalla Gobindgarh near the railway station here.
Remembering his great uncle, nephew Lalit Chopra told reporters that Bollywood producer B.R. Chopra used to visit his ancestral house in the locality here every now and then. Recalling about his last visit, Lalit said he had come to Jalandhar in the early ’90s as after that his deteriorating health did not allow him to travel.
Lalit, who is living with his wife Suman, sister-in-law Shrestha and their children in Chopra’s ancestral house, disclosed that Chopra had also remained editor of Cine Herald magazine in Lahore for some time before Partition. After Partition he, along with his family, came to Jalandhar and after spending nearly nine months in his house here left for Mumbai and never looked back.
Recalling his friendship with Chopra, a former Punjab minister Umrao Singh said he had family relations with him and his family since 1972 when he became minister in the Giani Zail Singh government in Punjab. B.R. Chopra was made director of the Punjab Film Corporation at that time and he started making a Punjabi film, "Sohni Mahiwal", with Rajesh Khanna as hero and Neetu Singh as heroine, on Zail Singh’s request. Its shooting had also been done at the Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh and several other parts of Punjab, but he dropped the idea of completing the film in 1977.
His neighbours Yashpal Goka, a DAP accountant, and P.K.S. Sodhi, a railway employee, said he used to receive his mohalla fellows warmly whenever they visited BR Villa in Juhu, Mumbai.Goka said when he provided him free pass to visit Kapur Studio when he had gone to Mumbai in 1988. Veteran Congress leader Umrao Singh also said he and his wife used to stay at Chopra’s house whenever they went to Mumbai.
Grief-stricken Jalandharis remember the kind-heartedness and the cooperative and polite nature of its great son B.R. Chopra who had spent the prime of his life at Mohalla Gobindgarh near the railway station here.
Remembering his great uncle, nephew Lalit Chopra told reporters that Bollywood producer B.R. Chopra used to visit his ancestral house in the locality here every now and then. Recalling about his last visit, Lalit said he had come to Jalandhar in the early ’90s as after that his deteriorating health did not allow him to travel.
Lalit, who is living with his wife Suman, sister-in-law Shrestha and their children in Chopra’s ancestral house, disclosed that Chopra had also remained editor of Cine Herald magazine in Lahore for some time before Partition. After Partition he, along with his family, came to Jalandhar and after spending nearly nine months in his house here left for Mumbai and never looked back.
Recalling his friendship with Chopra, a former Punjab minister Umrao Singh said he had family relations with him and his family since 1972 when he became minister in the Giani Zail Singh government in Punjab. B.R. Chopra was made director of the Punjab Film Corporation at that time and he started making a Punjabi film, "Sohni Mahiwal", with Rajesh Khanna as hero and Neetu Singh as heroine, on Zail Singh’s request. Its shooting had also been done at the Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh and several other parts of Punjab, but he dropped the idea of completing the film in 1977.
His neighbours Yashpal Goka, a DAP accountant, and P.K.S. Sodhi, a railway employee, said he used to receive his mohalla fellows warmly whenever they visited BR Villa in Juhu, Mumbai.Goka said when he provided him free pass to visit Kapur Studio when he had gone to Mumbai in 1988. Veteran Congress leader Umrao Singh also said he and his wife used to stay at Chopra’s house whenever they went to Mumbai.
