Brother of producer director B R Chopra, Dharam Chopra passed away on Saturday following cardiac arrest according to family sources. He was 78. Dharam is survived by his wife and three daughters. Dharam was a cinematographer and was responsible for shooting most of his brother’s films. The body was taken to Santacruz crematorium for last rites.

Dharam Chopra graduated from Punjab University before he came to Mumbai. In Mumbai he joined M and T Studios as an assistant in the camera department. Later he joined his brother B R Chopra and worked as an operative cameraman in the film ‘Sadhana’ before making a debut as a full fledged cinematographer in B R Chopra's ‘Dhool Ka Phool’ (1960) followed by ‘Dharamputra’ (1961), T Prakash Rao's ‘College Girl’ (1962), P L Santoshi's ‘Dil Hi to Hai’ (1964), B R's ‘Waqt’ (1965) for which he also received FilmFare Award as Best Cinematographer, followed by ‘Aadmi Aur Insaan’ for which he won Nizam Hyderabad Award for Best Cinematography.

Dharam was cinematographer for most of B R Chopra's films including ‘Ittefaq’ (1969, ‘Dastan’ (1972), ‘Zameer’ (1975), ‘Dhund’ (1973) and also won Journalist Assistant Best cinematography award for ‘Karam’ (1977), ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh’ (1978) and ‘The Burning train’ (1980).

He was also cinematographer of Tilak Raj's ‘36 Ghante’ (1974), T Prakash Rao's ‘Amanat’ (1971) and Sunrise Productions's ‘Tawaif’, directed by B R Chopra.

Dharam also shot B R Chopra's telefilms, Teri Meri Kahani, Dharti Akash, Beta and Ghazal, all produced and directed by B R Chopra and T V serials like Mahabharat, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Chunni, Sauda, Kanoon, Jhansi Ki Rani, Mai Dilli Hoon, Aurat and Vishnu Puran.