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Legendary Indian filmmaker Yash Chopra was bestowed with the highest French honor, Legion d’Honneur on Saturday, July 5, 2008 at the French Embassy in New Delhi. The highest civilian award of France was pinned by French ambassador to India, Jerome Bonnafont on President Nicolas Sarkozy’s behalf. The French ambassador noted that it is truly a joy to be awarding this medal to the master of Indian cinema, Yash Chopra. He further added that the French government has recognized his outstanding achievement in the world of India cinema.
Yash Chopra, who heads Yash Raj Films, One of India’s biggest production house after receiving the honor thanked President Sarkozy for considering him worthy of the honor. He further added that this will be a cherished memory and will remain with him forever. The noted Indian filmmaker gave the credit of his success to his brother B.R. Chopra, whom he called his guardian and friend at the ceremony. Mr. Yash Chopra noted that it was his brother who taught him everything and brought him to Mumbai from Punjab.
Also present at the French Embassy in New Delhi was Yash Chopra’s wife Pamela Chopra. But his director son Aditya and actor son Uday were not present, when the honor was bestowed on him. Before the actual award ceremony, a 30 minute audio-visual presentation traced Yash Chopra’s cinematic journey. It included sound bytes from some of the best people from Bollywood like Lata Mageshkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Karisma Kapoor, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherji, Kajol, Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan. These are the people, who have been associated with the director in some or most of his films. After receiving the honor, Yash Chopra has joined the league of other celebrated Indians like filmmaker Satyajit Ray, Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachchan and Pt Ravi Shankar, who have also received the same honor in the past.
