Fans throng Vile Parle for one last glimpse

Kishore Parekh, 61, has seen Deewar 15 times.
On Monday, the Ghatkopar resident was outside Pawan Hans crematorium, Vile Parle, to pay his respects to the filmmaker who directed films like Deewar, Silsila, Kabhi Kabhie and Lamhe in his five-decade long career.

“For our generation, he was a legend after Raj Kapoor,” said Parekh, who had gone to Yash Raj Studios and was told Yash Chopra’s body was taken to the crematorium. Chopra died of dengue on Sunday.

“I saw the shooting of Deewar. Amitabh Bachchan was shooting the scene where he says ‘File sign karte ho ki nahi’. His scripts were simple and the dialogues were brilliant. His movies, shot at beautiful locales, had distinct taste,” he added.  There were many like Parekh who had gathered outside the crematorium —some to pay their last respects to Chopra and some to catch a glimpse of a bevy of celebrities.

Each time a glitzy car stopped outside Pawan Hans crematorium, the crowd stood on tip toes and craned their necks to get a glimpse.

Fans and curious onlookers queued up on footpaths, hung on building gates, and stuck their necks out from the footover bridge. They took pictures and videos on their mobile phones. “I will wait till I see Shah Rukh Khan,” said Hiral Nisar, 19, a student of NMIMS.

Actors Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan arrived in the ambulance with Chopra’s family. Rekha, Deepika Padukone, Preity Zinta, Rishi Kapoor, Kiran Kumar, Dimple Kapadia, Kajol, Rajpal Yadav, Boman Irani, Suresh Oberoi, Udit Narayan, Rohit Shetty and Satish Kaushik attended the last rites. The roads leading to the crematorium had tight security. Agnelo Couto, manager of Khasiyat restaurant, said: “The police did not allow people to cross the road and so we had to take a detour while delivering parcels.”
“I take a rickshaw but today I couldn’t find one. Most of the routes are diverted too,” said Kajal Risbud, 19, an Andheri resident and student of NMIMS.