The Man Who Sparked Bollywood\'s Love of Foreign Locales

Courtesy of UTV Motion Pictures and Dharma ProductionsA still from the 2012 film “Ek Main Aur Ek Tu.”

If Bollywood audiences are accustomed to seeing exotic locales, they have one man in particular to thank: Yash Chopra.

Mr. Chopra, who died Sunday, was a towering figure in Hindi cinema, credited with popularizing shooting in foreign locations, which has become a must for big-budget productions. Just this year, “Players” was shot in New Zealand and Russia, “Ek Tha Tiger” in Cuba, Turkey and Ireland, “Housefull 2” in Thailand, “Agent Vinod” in Morocco, Britain and a host of other countries, and “Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu” in the United States.

While Mr. Chopra was not the first Bollywood director to shoot overseasâ€"that was Raj Kapoor, for the 1964 film “Sangam” â€"he was certainly the most prolific, regularly using picturesque foreign scenery for his romance-focused films. An entire generation of Indian filmgoers was first exposed to the Netherlands' celebrated Keukenhof tulip gardens in his 1981 movie “Silsila,” a story of a love triangle starring three actors who were rumored to be in a real-life one: Amitabh Bachchan, his wife Jaya Bachchan and the actress Rekha.

Eight years later, Switzerland served as the backdrop for “Chandni,” starring Rishi Kapoor and Sridevi, which made bright chiffon saris a fashion sensation. In 1993, the song “Tu Mere Samne” in “Darr,” which helped propel Shah Rukh Khan to superstardom (Juhi Chawla also starred), also featured snowy Swiss peaks.  But it was the 1994 blockbuster “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,” which Mr. Chopra produced but did not direct â€" with its famous scene of the actress Kajol missing her train after  disembarking to buy a cowbell, and its chart-topping song “Tujhe Dekha Hai To Jaana Sanam” - that cemented Mr. Chopra's reputation for glamorous foreign settings.

Mr. Chopra had a special affection for Europe, and for Switzerland in particular. He first visited more than 50 years ago, staying in bed-and-breakfasts all over the country. In 1971, he honeymooned in Gstaad with his new bride Pamela, apparently promising her that he would try to have at least one song or sequence set in Switzerland. But it was not till 1985 that he first filmed there (“Faasle”).  After that, there seems to have been no looking back. All told, Mr. Chopra shot scenes for 10 of his movies in the postcard-pretty nation, thereby promoting the country in In dia as a tourist destination.

Switzerland reciprocated the affection. Two years ago, Mr. Chopra was named honorary Ambassador of Interlaken. Jungfrau Railways named a train after him, an honor bestowed on only one other person (Adolf Guyer-Zeller, who founded the railway route more than a century ago).  A lake in Alpenrausch, one of the filmmaker's favorite locations for shooting, was renamed Chopra Lake, according to the film Web site imdb.com. Mr. Chopra's company has a stake in a travel agency that promotes Indian group tours to Switzerland.  He was due to leave for Switzerland to film a song sequence for “Jab Tak Hai Jaan,” starring Mr.  Khan and Katrina Kaif, before he contracted the dengue fever that led to his death.

Yash Raj Chopra was born on Sept. 27, 1932, in the pre-partition Punjabi city of Lahore, in what i s now Pakistan. The youngest of eight siblings, he had planned to be an engineer before deciding to follow his older brother, Baldev Raj Chopra, a journalist turned filmmaker, to Mumbai.

His made his debut as a director with the 1959 film “Dhool Ka Phool,” which dealt with Hindu-Muslim relationships and the taboo subject of illegitimacy. Two years later, the brothers made “Dharmputra,” which dealt with the trauma of partition; there was violence at some of the cinemas that screened the film.  Mr. Chopra did not make another overtly political film, although “Veer Zaara” in 2004  revisited the subject of India-Pakistan relations by way of a love story involving an Indian Air Force officer, played by Mr. Khan, and an affluent Pakistani girl, played by Preity Zinta.

Strdel/Agence France-Presse - Getty ImagesBollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, left, with director Yash Chopra in Mumbai, Maharashtra, in this Dec. 3, 2009 file photo.

In 1971, Mr. Chopra formally separated his business from his brother's, founding  Yash Raj Films. By then he had already won two Filmfare awards for best director, in 1965 and 1969. His 1975 film “Deewaar” cemented Mr. Bachchan's reputation as a major movie star and action hero.  Yet a year later, he cast Mr. Bachchan in the huge romantic hit “Kabhie Kabhie,” demonstrating a willingness to take risks, given that Mr. Bachchan had been typecast as an “angry young man.”

The 1980s were a fallow period for Mr. Chopra, but the losing streak ended late in the decade with “Chandni.” from the n ineties on, Yash Raj Films delivered considered hits, pioneering big-budget,  family-friendly romance cinema, often involving dramatic sets, chart busting musical scores and elaborate costumes. In the 1990s, Mr. Chopra's devotion to filming in foreign locations, along with his use of affluent Indian characters, began to attract a more international audience, especially among the Indian diaspora.   He was the first Bollywood director to shoot in Germany, for “Dil To Pagal Hai” in 1997.

Soon most Bollywood films were following Mr. Chopra's pattern; more than 200 movies till 2010 have featured scenes filmed in Switzerland alone, for instance.  In 2006, Mr. Chopra set up a 20-acre, state-of-the-art movie and sound studio in Mumbai for Yash Raj, which is also rented to other production companies.

Mr. Chopra directed 22 films â€" including “Jab Tak Hai Jaan,” which has yet to be released - and produced 53. He won eight Filmfare awards for best director, and held many honors, including India's third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan, and the French Legion of Honor. He is survived by his wife, Pamela, and two sons, Aditya and Uday.