Shashi Kapoor Biography

Shashi Kapoor 

Date of Birth

18 March 1938, Calcutta, West Bengal, India 

Birth Name

Balbir Raj Kapoor 

Height

5' 11" (1.80 m) 

Mini Biography

Indian actor of Bollywood, Parallel Cinema, and International productions; Shashi Kapoor is the youngest son of theater and film actor Prithviraj Kapoor and his wife Ramsarni "Rama" Mehra Kapoor. Shashi grew up traveling around the country with his father's acting trope "Prithvi Theatres." He began appearing on stage from the age of four. He also began working in films in the early 1940s. As a child, he appeared in mythological films as well as the films of his eldest brother Raj Kapoor.

By 1956, an 18-year old Shashi was both actor and assistant stage manager for "Prithvi Theatre." That year, "Shakespeareana" --a traveling theater group under English actor Geoffrey Kendal, and "Prithvi Theatre" were both booked to play in Calcutta. While checking the audience reaction from backstage, Shashi's glance fell on Jennifer Kendal. Shashi soon learned she was playing Miranda in "The Tempest," and secured an introduction. The two began courting, and expressed a desire to wed. Geoffrey Kendal was uncertain about loosing not only his daughter, but his leading lady and theater manager. He insisted that the couple wait at least two years. Shashi began touring with "Shakespeareana," and in 1958 he again asked for Jennifer's hand in marriage and was again refused. However, Jennifer decided to go against her father's wishes, and in July of 1958, the couple were married in the traditional Indian style in Bombay.

Shashi debuted as a leading man in Yash Chopra's Dharmputra (1961)_ . In early 60's his films with him as the solo heroes were box office flops. But Nanda believed that Shahsi does have the potential to be popular leading man and signed happily films opposite him.Except for their first film together, other 6 films of the pair Nanda-Shashi turned out to be super-hits in sixties.A versatile actor, Shashi worked in both mainstream popular Hindi cinema, art films and in Indian-set English-language films, such as those made by the film-making team Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. He was one of the first Indian stars to go international, as he worked in both British and American films, and directed the Soviet Union co-production Ajooba (1991) (aka "Vozvrashcheniye Bagdadskogo Vora").

He won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for Deewaar (1975). He won two Filmfare Best Movie Awards for his work as producer and star of Junoon (1979) and Kalyug (1981).He costarred in nine films with Amitabh Bachchan.His on screen pair with Rakhee, Sharmila Tagore and Zeenat Aman remained popular with audience from early 70's till 1985.

Shashi and Jennifer had three children; Kunal Kapoor, an actor and ad director, Karan Kapoor a photographer and sometimes actor, and Sanjana Kapoor, an actress who has run Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai since 1993. After his wife Jennifer died of cancer in 1984, Shashi started becoming obese and began taking on fewer roles in films, and shifted his focus to character roles.

In 2010, Shashi was presented with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award. He is now a grandfather and retired from the film industry.

Spouse

Jennifer Kendal (July 1959 - 7 September 1984) (her death) 3 children

Trivia

Son of Prithviraj Kapoor, brother of Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor.

Father of Sanjana Kapoor and actors Kunal Kapoor and Karan Kapoor.

The pair Shashi Kapoor Sharmila Tagore did 9 films together and 7 were box office super-hits and also critically acclaimed and the other two were critically acclaimed but box office flops.

The Shashi Kapoor-Zeenat Aman pair had 7 box office super-hits and 3 box office flop films.

The on-screen pair of Rakhee Gulzar-Shashi Kapoor did 9 films together. Four were box office flops and five were box office super-hits.