Anil Kapoor & Yash Chopra Movies Together List — 3 Films

The shape of the work

The 1980s belonged to Mashaal; the 1990s to Lamhe. Anil Kapoor acted in every film; Yash Chopra directed all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Yash Chopra didn't want to cast Anil Kapoor in Mashaal (1984). He thought Anil was too young and too 'hero-like' for the gritty role of a street-smart newspaper boy. Anil begged for a screen test, did it in one take, and Chopra changed his mind on the spot.
• On the set of Vijay (1988), Anil Kapoor would constantly improvise dialogue. Yash Chopra hated it at first — he was a stickler for his written lines. But after the third day, Chopra started leaving blank spaces in the script for Anil to fill. That film became their only flop together.
• Lamhe (1991) was a box office disaster in India but a blockbuster overseas. Because of that split, Yash Chopra and Anil Kapoor together convinced the industry that the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) audience was a real market. Every single 'diaspora film' after 1992 — from DDLJ to Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham — owes its existence to the risk they took with Lamhe.
• After Lamhe flopped in India, Yash Chopra felt responsible for ruining Anil Kapoor's career momentum. Anil called him the next morning and said, 'Sir, I signed the film knowing the script. We both believed in it. Don't apologise.' They didn't work together again for 17 years — but they spoke on the phone every single Diwali without fail.
• Anil Kapoor once said about Yash Chopra: 'He was the only director who could make me cry on set without saying a word. He'd just look at me from behind the camera, and I'd know exactly what he wanted.'