Ravi Chopra: Soulful storyteller who touched hearts (Obituary)

He made mythology popular on television by offering "Mahabharat" to viewers and showed the beauty of family ties on the big screen through "Baghban" and "Baabul". Ravi Chopra made many films and TV shows that showed his impressive range as a filmmaker.

Ravi Chopra, who was hospitalised in Breach Candy hospital here, passed away Wednesday. He was reportedly suffering from a severe lung ailment since the last few years. He is survived by his wife and three children. He was 68.

Born in 1946, he hailed from the illustrious Bollywood Chopra family. His father was late filmmaker B.R. Chopra, and his uncle was late filmmaker Yash Chopra, who helmed romantic films like "Kabhi Kabhie", "Silsila" and "Dil Toh Pagal Hai". The Bollywood connection doesn't end here. He was also cousin of Aditya and Uday Chopra.

He started as an assistant producer of the 1972-release "Dastaan", directed by his father.

Ravi Chopra commenced his directorial journey in 1975 with "Zameer", starring Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna and Shammi Kapoor.

He went on to work with Big B in movies like "Baghban" and "Baabul". Ravi Chopra also produced Amitabh-starrer "Bhoothnath" in 2008.

He had also teamed up with popular actors like Dilip Kumar, Dharmendra, Raj Babbar and Hema Malini, who considered him like family.

Hema took to Twitter to pay tribute to the late filmmaker.

"Ravi Chopra is gone, leaving behind a void. Renu & he were like family & I will miss him. Rest in peace dear friend (sic)," the actress-politician tweeted Wednesday.

Apart from directing and producing films, he was a writer too. He had penned stories of films like "The Burning Train" (1980) and "Baabul" (2006).

The multi-talented Ravi directed one of the most popular mythological TV shows "Mahabharat". The drama, produced by his father, ran from 1988 to 1990.

He had also directed the television mini-series "Ramayan", which was aired in 2002.

As an executive producer, his project "Cooking with Stella", a light comedy, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009.

If one goes by reports, he was expected to make a comeback to the small screen with another mythological series titled "Vasudev Krishna".

If the audience lauded his work onscreen, he impressed celebrities offscreen too.

"Happy New Year" director Farah Khan described Ravi Chopra as "one of the nicest, kindest and big hearted soul".

Actress Divya Dutta, who worked with Ravi Chopra in "Baghban", said he was one man who was "full of life".

Musician Vishal Dadlani called him "one of the most gracious gentlemen".

Actor Rohit Roy had kind words for the filmmaker. He said Ravi Chopra was "definitely the nicest man I've worked with in the film industry".