Shashi Kapoor , born as Balbir Prithviraj Kapoor; 18 March 1938 – 4 December 2017 was an Indian film actor and producer.
He appeared in a large number of Hindi films as well in several English-language films notably the films produced by Merchant-Ivory. He was also a film director and assistant director in the Hindi film industry.
Shashi Kapoor was a member of the Kapoor family, a film dynasty in India’s Bollywood cinema. Kapoor was born in Calcutta , during the British Raj.
He was the third and youngest son of Prithviraj Kapoor, the younger brother of Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor, husband of Jennifer Kendal , and the father of Karan Kapoor, Kunal Kapoor, and Sanjana Kapoor.
In 2011, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India for his contributions to Art-Cinema.
In 2015, he was awarded the 2014 Dadasaheb Phalke Award, making him the third member of his family to receive the highest award in Indian Cinema after Prithviraj Kapoor and Raj Kapoor.
He was admitted for a reported chest infection at Kokilaben Hospital, Mumbai on 3 December 2017 and died on 4 December 2017 due to prolonged liver cirrhosis.
He gained popularity as a child artist when he played the younger version of his the character played by his brother, Raj Kapoor, in Aag (1948) and Awaara (1951).
Kapoor made his debut as the leading man in Dharmputra (1961) that was directed by Yash Chopra, who would later go to do direct him in some of his best roles in Deewar (1975) and Kabhi Kabhie (1976) and it was also around this time that he began a long association with filmmaker James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant with The Householder (1963).
Through the 1960s Kapoor enjoyed commercial success in Hindi films and also global popularity with the Merchant-Ivory productions such as Shakespeare-Wallah(1965) that released in the same year as Waqt (1965) and his breakthrough hit as a solo lead, Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965).
What made Shashi Kapoor stand apart from the other stars was the manner in which he approached his work. He continued to pick up projects that would help him balance commercial Hindi film outings with ones that would inspire him as an actor – can you imagine anyone else doing Conrad Rooks’ Siddhartha (1971) and Aa Gale Lag Jaa (1973) simultaneously.
He and his wife, Jennifer Kendal, were passionate about theatre and went on to establish Prithvi Theatre in then Bombay in 1978 and it comes to be one of India’s most vibrant venue.
There is already a process of rediscovering Kapoor’s body of work that extends beyond the charm with which he could melt hearts or the earnestness with which he said ‘Mere paas maa hai’ in Deewar.
In the whole of the Kapoor clan, Shashi Kapoor has been the solo hero more times (61 films) and also as a lead protagonist in more Hindi films(116) than his nephews Rishi Kapoor,Randhir Kapoor and Rajiv and even more than his brothers Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and more than his grand-nephews and grand-nieces.
