Yash Raj Films, the Bollywood production house, has turned 50. Aditya Chopra has penned an open letter addressed to the audience in this regard. Founded by Yash Chopra (Aditya's father) in 1970, the banner is regarded as one of the biggest in the country. 

Talking about the background of the establishment of the production house, Aditya Chopra said, In 1970, my father Yash Chopra, left the security and comfort of his brother BR Chopra and formed his own company. Till then, he was a salaried employee of BR Films and didn’t own anything of his own. He did not know how to run a business and did not even have the basic knowledge of what goes into making a company. All he had was a strong belief in his talent and hard work and a dream to be self-reliant.

Help came from V Shantaram of Rajkamal Studios, who gave Yash a small room in his studio for the latter to set up an office. 

It was with the 1995 film 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' that Aditya debuted as a director. That year, YRF had hit 25. The historic success of that film gave me the confidence to give wings to some crazy risky ideas that I had for the future of YRF. Besides the immense love that my father had for me, he now also had a lot of faith in my ideas because of the miraculous success of my film. I had foreseen the advent of international corporate studios coming to India and taking over our business, Aditya said.

Talking about the advance of YRF, he touched upon how Yash constantly enabled change. My father contradicted his own conservative mindset and bravely indulged all my bold initiatives. And in a span of 10 quick years, we went from a film production house to India’s first fully integrated independent film studio, he added. 

Asking what makes a company flourish, Aditya says, It is the PEOPLE. The people who worked in each and every YRF film for the last 50 years. My dad used to describe his journey with a poet’s line- I walked all alone towards my destination, people kept joining and the caravan kept growing.

He thanked the actors, directors, writers, music directors and other technicians for leaving indelible images on our minds forever.