When Pamela Chopra said Yash Chopra was too busy trying to convince Hema Malini to do a film during their first meeting

The late Yash Chopra’s wife Pamela Chopra died in Mumbai on Thursday. She was 74. Javed Akhtar as well as Yash Raj Films had confirmed the news on Twitter. In a 2015 interview, Pamela had said that when she first met Yash Chopra, it was ‘very briefly’, as he was too busy trying to convince Hema Malini to do a film. Yash Chopra, who died in 2012, was known for his romantic films, and had worked with the biggest names of Bollywood during his five-decade long film career, both as a director and a producer. Also read: Aditya Chopra’s mother Pamela Chopra dies at 74

Pamela Chopra is survived by her sons Aditya Chopra, who is married to actor Rani Mukerji, and Uday Chopra. Aditya heads the production house Yash Raj Films (YRF). In an old interview, Pamela, also known as Pam Chopra, had spoken about the men in her life – her late husband, and sons Aditya and Uday.

Pamela had told Rediff in 2015 about her first meeting with Yash Chopra, “I think the first time I spoke to him was at Yash ji’s niece’s wedding sangeet. I was in Mumbai for my holidays and staying at Simi’s (veteran actor and talk show host Simi Garewal, who is also her cousin) home. They were invited and took me along. They said I would be a great asset as I sing Punjabi songs. I met him very briefly at first. He was too busy trying to convince Hema Malini to do a film. He and Hema were on the balcony the whole time. He came in only when the singing started. I was singing. He came up to me and complimented me on my singing. That was it.”

Pamela and Yash Chopra had an arranged marriage in 1970. In the same interview, Pamela was asked if she knew he was a filmmaker, when they first met. She had said in response, “Oh, yes, I was a complete film buff. Every Friday when a film released, we would watch the matinee show. But I was not a Yash Chopra fan; I was more of a Raj Kapoor fan… Our families (Yash and her’s) had a common friend in (actor) Romesh Sharma’s mother. She had seen me at a wedding in Delhi, where I was singing and thought I would be ideal for Yash. She was not wrong because we had a wonderful marriage.”

Pamela was last seen in the Netflix documentary The Romantics, where she spoke about her late husband.