So it was the fourth day of my Swiss Travel and I was madly smitten by Switzerland’s alluring beauty of snow-capped mountains, lush green valleys and sky-blue colored lakes and breadth taking glaciers. This day was reserved for Interlaken visit in the beginning of the trip itself. Interlaken as the name is, lies on an alluvial plain, between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz and the stupendous pulchritude of the place is awfully hard to be framed in words, still tried my best to capture the still my IphoneX.
After a panorama view of cloud touching “Harder Kulm”, me and Madhu headed towards the market area to quench our appetite. All of a sudden, my eyes paused on an extremely acquainted face, standing in the middle of a small garden and gazing towards the mountains with sheer calm and emitting an aura filled with immense grandeur. It took me no time to recollect that he is the man who has shaped the imagination what love, tranquility and romance are in a childish mind of the then teenager me. Yes, he was non other than legendary Indian film director and film producer, Yash Chopra, the man who accounts for the little me envisioning myself being lost in Swiss alps and missing the EU rail only to find my Raj like Sanorita from DDLJ or standing in front of dressing table and dancing like Happy-go-lucky Chandani draped in Yellow and pick Chiffon Saree stolen from my mom’s almirah, something of a Bollywood cliche – straight out of Switzerland.
It was actually a golden-brown statue of Yash Chopra the backbone of YRF. The 350 kg statue, which stands in Kurssaal Garden in the central Swiss town of Interlaken, is a replica of the one in Chopra’s film studio in Mumbai.
Me being a photo enthusiast, din’t waste any time and copied his pose standing on the other side of the camera he was holding, and Madhu took no time to get the hint, and captured the two of us in her phone in different poses.
Its Yash Chopra who has made Switzerland so familiar to to 80’s and 90’s kids, featuring most of his movies in Swiss Alps as a backdrop, he holds the credit for making the alpine nation a dream vacay for most of the Indians thus being the sole reason for the success of Switzerland and the Jungfrau region in India.
Being an Indian and an ardent admirer of Yash Raj, I was deeply elated to see this legendary human standing steadfastly with his camera in his signature pose, representing Bollywood, the vein of India as a whole and that feeling of profound respect for him fostered me to write about our rendezvous. Through his movies, Chopra did wonders for Switzerland tourism and the Swiss government too, has taken efforts to honour the legend posthomously.
While exploring online about this place, I found out that Lake Lauenen, in the Canton of Berne is unofficially referred to as Lake Chopra. It was one of his favorite spots in Switzerland, and has been featured in his films too. The Swiss government honored Chopra with the title of Ambassador of Interlaken, making him the first recipient of the award. A silver plaque dedicated to him was placed on the Hoheweg, Interlaken’s main street. He was also bestowed the Swiss Ambassador’s Award.
It was really great to see that this legend holds so much respect even after 6 years of his demise because of the tremendous work he did and the legacy will go on and on in the time to come.
