Joy Mukherjee

Joy Mukherjee was an Indian actor and director. He was referred to as the 'Heart Throb' in his time as he was famously known for his romantic roles in 1960s. He acted in 30 films.

Family background

Joy Mukherjee was the son of Sashadhar Mukherjee and Sati Devi. His father was a successful producer and a co-founder of Filmalaya Studios. His uncles were director Subodh Mukherjee, Ashok Kumar, Anoop Kumar and Kishore Kumar. Joy Mukherjee was educated in Col. Brown Cambridge School in Dehradun and St. Xavier College.
He married Neelam and they had two sons and a daughter.

Career

Joy debuted opposite Sadhana in the film Love in Simla, directed by R. K. Nayyar. He then starred with Asha Parekh for several hits like Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon, Love in Tokyo, ''Ziddi and Hum Hindustani. Some of his films like Aao Pyar Karen and Shagird, Ek Musafir Ek Haseena with Sadhna, Ishaara with Vyjayantimala and Jee Chahta Hai with Rajashree were superhit movies. Most of his movies had hit music. By the late 1960s, acting roles began drying up, so he began directing and producing films.
He produced and directed Humsaya although it did not do well. Despite a late success with home production Ek Baar Muskura Do with brother Deb Mukherjee and later to be sister-in-law Tanuja, Joy faded from the silver screen.
He later directed Rajesh Khanna in Chailla Babu in 1977 which was a major box office success. This film's success solved his insolvency problems which arose due to production of Love in Bombay. In 1985, Rajesh Khanna gave him opportunity to play a villain in the film Insaaf Main Karoonga'', which became the last successful film of Joy.

Financial troubles

Love in Bombay brought financial trouble for Joy Mukherjee but his wife Neelam, who released the movie 40 years later, said that despite losing everything, the film remained very close to him. "This film was my husband's Waterloo. He lost everything he had in this film. He sunk in lot of his own money, major properties. There were 37 cases of insolvency against him. But he cleared everything and had a clean slate and started afresh. This film was very dear to him despite it bringing so much problems to him,". The 1973 film was the third part of the "Love in" series which started with Joy debuting with the blockbuster hit Love in Simla in 1960 and the golden jubilee hit Love in Tokyo in 1966. He came out of insolvency with the box office success of his sole successful directorial venture, Chailla Babu, in 1977.

Death

Joy Mukherjee died on 9 March 2012 in Mumbai's Leelavati Hospital, exactly two weeks after his 73rd birthday, where he had been on a ventilator. He had a prolonged illness.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1960	Love in Simla	Dev Kumar Mehra	Debut With Sadhana
1960	Hum Hindustani	Satyendra Nath
1962	Umeed	Shankar
1962	Ek Musafir Ek Hasina	Ajay
1963	Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon	Mohan
1964	Aao Pyaar Karen	Kesha
1964	Ji Chahta Hai	Parwana
1964	Ishaara	Vijay
1964	Ziddi	Ashok
1964	Door Ki Awaz	Prakash
1965	Bahu Beti	Shekhar
1966	Love in Tokyo	Ashok
1966	Yeh Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hai	Sanjay Malhotra
1966	Saaz Aur Awaaz	Rajesh
1967	Shagird	Ramesh
1968	Ek Kali Muskayee	Dr. Dilip
1968	Humsaya	Shyam / Lin Tan	Directed & Produced By Himself
1968	Dil Aur Mohabbat	Rajesh Choudhary
1969	Dupatta	Himself	Punjabi Film
1970	Aag Aur Daag	Raja
1970	Ehsan	Raja Prasad
1970	Inspector	Inspector Rajesh / Agent 707
1970	Moojrim	Gopal
1970	Puraskar	Rakesh
1971	Kahin Aar Kahin Paar	CID Agent
1972	Ek Bar Mooskura Do	Dr. Ashok
1977	Haiwan	Major Anil Verma
1977	Chhailla Babu		Director
1985	Phoolan Devi	Bada Thakur	Bengali Film; Also Released in Hindi as "Kahani Phoolvati Ki"
1985	Insaaf Main Karoongaa	Shamsher Singh
2013	Love in Bombay	Badal	Directed & Produced By Himself. Film was originally made in 1971 but released in 2013.