industry. Early life Chopra was born on 27 September 1932 in Lahore, Punjab Province, British India into a Punjabi Hindu Khatri family. His father was an accountant in the PWD division of the British Punjab administration. He was the youngest of eight children, the oldest of whom was almost 30 years his senior. The eminent film-maker B. R. Chopra is one of his brothers. Chopra was largely brought up in the Lahore house of his second brother, B. R. Chopra, then a film journalist. Chopra lived in Lahore in 1945 to continue his education, where he studied at Doaba College and originally sought to pursue a career in engineering. He later moved to Ludhiana, East Punjab (in India) after the Partition of India. His passion for film-making led him to travel to Bombay, where he initially worked as an assistant director to I. S. Johar, and then for his director-producer brother, B. R. Chopra, while another brother, Dharam Chopra, worked as his cameraman. Career Early career Chopra received his first directorial opportunity in 1959 with the social drama Dhool Ka Phool, produced by his elder brother B.R. Chopra and starring Mala Sinha, Rajendra Kumar and Leela Chitnis. The film revolved around a Muslim bringing up an "illegitimate" Hindu child. The film was well received by critics and became the fourth highest-grossing film of the year. Encouraged by their success, the Chopras made another hard-hitting social drama, Dharmputra (1961). It was one of the first films to depict the Partition of India and Hindu fundamentalism. The film marked the debut of Shashi Kapoor in a fully fledged role and was awarded with the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Chopra's collaboration with his brother continued in the form of the 1965 film Waqt, which featured an ensemble cast including Sunil Dutt, Raaj Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Sadhana, Balraj Sahni, Madan Puri, Sharmila Tagore, Achala Sachdev and Rehman. The film became a critical and commercial success. It is acknowledged as a "found film" of the "lost-and-found" genre. Setting many other trends, it was one of Indian cinema's first multi-starrers, a mode which became increasingly popular among the producers during the 1970s. It also began the now-obligatory style of depicting wealth and social class. Chopra received his first Filmfare Award for Best Director for the film. In 1969, Chopra directed two films produced by his brother. The first was Aadmi Aur