This was followed by a short documentary highlighting the plight of India’s destitute children, called An Encounter with Faces, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Subject category in 1979. It also won the Grand Prix at the Tampere Film Festival in 1980.

He founded his own production company, Vinod Chopra Films, in 1985. Since then, the company has gone on to produce major Bollywood films, and is currently one of the biggest and most successful film production houses in India.

Chopra was born and grew up in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. His father was D. N. Chopra and veteran filmmaker Ramanand Sagar was his half-brother. His father’s family originally came from Peshawar, British India. His mother was Shanti Devi Chopra who left Kashmir with him and family after the Ethnic Cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits by Jihadis in 1990. He has dedicated his new movie Shikara to his mother which is based on the same theme. He studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune.

His critically acclaimed films include Parinda, 1942: A Love Story, Mission Kashmir, the Munna Bhai series, Parineeta, and 3 Idiots. 3 Idiots went on to become one of the most successful films in India, and became the first film in the country to cross Rs. 200 crore at the boxoffice. It also found popular appeal in markets like Taiwan and Korea. He also made his Hollywood directorial debut with the film Broken Horses in 2015. However, it received a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 22%, and was a commercial disaster, only making Rs. 60 lakh in its opening weekend.

His latest film, Shikara is a Hindi language historical romance film released on 7 February 2020 marking his return to direction in India after 13 years. His last directorial feature film, Eklavya: The Royal Guard released in 2007.