Shashi Kapoor is one of the leading actors of Indian cinema having
appeared in 160 movies - 12 in English and 148 in Hindi. He has
appeared in 148 Hindi films - of them played the solo lead hero in 61
films, was lead hero in 53 released multi star cast Hindi films, 2
unreleased multi star film and 21 Hindi films had him in supporting
role, worked in 4 films as a child artist and made 7 guest appearances.
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." from
1940-59. 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 4
films from 1948-53 which includes 2 films of his eldest brother
Raj Kapoor as the hero and Sangram,
where Shashi played Ashok Kumar.
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).
From 1961-64 his Hindi films with him as the solo heroes were box
office flops. But Nanda believed that Shashi does have the potential to
be popular leading man and signed happily 8 films opposite him over the
period 1962-1968. Except for their first 2 films together and Juaari,
other 5 films of the pair Nanda-Shashi turned out to be super-hits from
1965-70.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) which
was a disaster.He tried his hand at English films when his Hindi films
were flops from 1961-64 and achieved success in 1963 with 2
commercially successful English movies.He did 6 English films as lead
hero till 1983 and then played villain in Deceivers and another lead
role in 1993 and rest 4 English films had him in supporting role as
narrator/guest appearance from 1987-1998. Shashi started having solo
hits opposite Rakhee, Asha Parekh, Sharmila Tagore, Zeenat Aman from
1968-1975 but had a weak period as a solo lead hero from 1974-1978
where he had 13 flops off 24 films as solo lead and this made him
accept multi star cast films from 1976-85. He achieved success in multi
star films from 1976-84.In the multi star films he did , he was paid
more than co-stars Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, Rishi and
Randhir Kapoor. But Sanjeev Kumar,Pran and Dharmendra were paid at same
rate as Shashi in the films where they were his co-stars. Only Rajesh
Khanna was paid more than Shashi in the 2 films they did together. He
played supporting role to Rajesh Khanna at peak of his career in Prem
Kahani and then in Alag Alag.
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 11 films
with Amitabh Bachchan of which 4
(Deewar,Trishul, Suhaag,Namak Halal) were successful,1 (Kala Pathar)was
average hit and rest 6 were flops. Shashi Kapoor did 61 solo lead hero
films in Hindi and, of them, 35 were super-hits. Shashi did 55
multi-star cast movies where Shashi was one of the lead heroes and, of
them, 33 were super-hits, 20 were flops, 2 remain unreleased.
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.His first
break as supporting actor after he became obese was given by Rajesh
Khanna in film Alag Alag where his role along-with the lead pair of the
film was appreciated.
In 2010, Shashi was presented with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement
Award.
