Raj Kapoor was an Indian film actor, producer and director and one of the most celebrated actors and filmmakers of Bollywood.
Raj Kapoor Siblings
He was the eldest of six children in the family. He was the grandson of Dewan Basheshwarnath Kapoor and great-grandson of Dewan Keshavmal Kapoor, part of the famous Kapoor family.
His brothers were the late actors Shashi Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor. He also had a sister named Urmila Sial. Two other siblings died in infancy.
They later on moved from Peshawar into present-day India for residence and for education. His maternal cousin, Juggal Kishore Mehra, was a singer, whose granddaughter, Salma Agha, later became a Bollywood actress.
Raj Kapoor Biography
Born at Kapoor Haveli in Peshawar to actor Prithviraj Kapoor– he was a member of the Kapoor family which has produced several Bollywood superstars.
Kapoor was born into a Punjabi Hindu family in 1924 at Kapoor Haveli, a house then owned by his father, in Peshawar, North Western Frontier Province, British India (in modern-day Pakistan), to Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsarni Devi Kapoor.
In May 1946, Raj Kapoor married Krishna Malhotra (1930-2018). Krishna was Prithviraj Kapoor’s first cousin (his mother’s brother’s daughter) and thus, she was one generation senior to her husband Raj Kapoor
Raj and Krishna Kapoor had five children: three sons, actors Randhir, Rishi and Rajiv, and two daughters, Ritu Nanda and Rima Jain. Randhir is married to former actress Babita and is the father of actresses Karishma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor. Rishi is married to former actress Neetu Singh and is the father of two children, a daughter Riddhima, and a son, the actor Ranbir Kapoor.
Raj Kapoor’s elder daughter, Ritu Nanda, is married to industrialist Rajan Nanda (the scion of the family which promoted and controls the Escorts group), and she is the mother of two children.
He had an estimated net worth of around $30 million
Kapoor is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors and filmmakers in the history of Hindi cinema. He received multiple accolades, including 3 National Film Awards and 11 Filmfare Awards in India. The Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award is named after Raj Kapoor.
He was a two-time nominee for the Palme d’Or grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his films Awaara (1951) and Boot Polish (1954). His performance in Awaara was ranked as one of the top ten greatest performances of all time by Time magazine. His films attracted worldwide audiences, particularly in Asia and Europe. He was called “the Clark Gable of the Indian film industry”.
The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1971 for his contributions to the arts. India’s highest award in cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, was bestowed on him in 1987 by the Government of India.
In 1949 he co-starred alongside Dilip Kumar and Nargis in Mehboob Khan’s hit film Andaz which was his first major success as an actor. He had his first success as producer, director and star of Barsaat released later that year.
He went on to produce and star in several hit films made under his R. K. Banner including Awaara (1951), Shree 420 (1955), Jagte Raho (1956) and Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai (1960), the last was directed by Radhu Karmakar, his longtime cinematographer, and which won Filmfare Award for Best Film.
In 1970 he produced, directed and starred in his ambitious film Mera Naam Joker which took more than six years to complete.
In 1970 he produced, directed and starred in his ambitious film Mera Naam Joker which took more than six years to complete. His son Rishi Kapoor made his debut in this film playing the younger version of his character.
He was set to direct Henna starring his son Rishi and Pakistani actress Zeba Bakhtiar before his death in 1988. His son Randhir directed the film and it was released in 1991.
Raj Kapoor suffered from asthma in his later years; he died of complications related to asthma in 1988 at the age of 63.
He collapsed at the event where he was to receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for treatment. He was hospitalised for about a month before he succumbed to complications arising from his asthma.
At the time of his death, he was working on the movie Henna (an Indo-Pakistan based love story). The film was later completed by his sons Randhir Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor and was released in 1991.
