Veteran Hindi filmmaker and ‘King of Romance’ Yash Chopra passed away this evening at 5.30pm at Lilavati hospital, Mumbai.

Yash Chopra had been hospitalised since the last nine days and died due to Dengue. He was also suffering from multiple organ failure. The news was broken by noted filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt who wrote on a micro blogging site, "Heartbreaking news- Yash Chopra passes away!"

Reacting to the news, filmmaker Subhash Ghai said, “Yashji was the guru of industry. He was always full of energy. He will be remembered forever.”

Yash Chopra, 80, is survived by wife Pamela Chopra and two sons, filmmaker Aditya Chopra and actor-producer Uday Chopra.

Yash Chopra was born in Lahore, now in Pakistan, on September 27, 1932. He began his career as an assistant director to his elder brother B.R. Chopra and directed his own first film Dhool Ka Phool in 1959.

The Chopra brothers made several more movies together during the late 50s and 60s.

Chopra’s first commercial as well as critical success was Waqt (1965), a multi-starrer family drama.

In 1973, Chopra founded his own production company Yash Raj Films.

Though he started out in late 50s, Chopra always had his finger on the pulse of the audience and continued to deliver blockbusters in every following decade.

His repertoire includes iconic Angry Young Man films like Trishul and Deewar, both featuring Amitabh Bachchan in central roles, but in the later years Chopra was more and more associated with the ‘romance’ genre.

This is sad news for the entire nation and even sadder is the fact that he did not live to see the release of his last directorial venture, Jab Tak Hain Jaan.