Pamela Chopra, Yash Chopra’s wife and muse, passes away at 74; funeral takes place in Mumbai

In a statement, Yash Raj Films tweeted that Pamela Chopra’s funeral took place at 11 am on Thursday, “With heavy hearts, the Chopra family would like to inform that Pamela Chopra, 74, passed away this morning. Her cremation took place at 11 am in Mumbai. We are grateful for your prayers and the family would like to request for privacy in this deep moment of sadness and reflection.”

 

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Pamela Chopra was a frequent collaborator with her late husband and often was credited as the writer, costumes designer and singer in some of the popular YRF films. One of her most famous songs was Chandni’s ‘Main Sasural Nahi Jaungi’ and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’s ‘Ghar Aaja Pardesi’ where she shared credit with Manpreet Kaur.

Yash Chopra with wife Pamela Chopra. (Photo: Express Archives)

The story for Yash Chopra’s 1976 film Kabhi Kabhie was written by her, and she was credited as the designer for the 1981 film Silsila. Yash Chopra, in many of his interviews, spoke about Pamela’s inputs in his films and credited her as one of the foundations of Yash Raj Films, which started after they got married.

In a recent interview with PTI, Rani Mukerji, who is married to Aditya Chopra said that it was Pamela Chopra’s influence that led Yash Chopra to write beautiful parts for women. “I truly believe it had to do a lot with Pam Aunty’s (Pamela Chopra) influence in his life that drove him to write such beautiful parts for women. I have always been in awe of how he presented his heroines on screen, and secretly always wished to be the quintessential ‘Yash Chopra heroine’,” she said.