Raj Kapoor

Raj Kapoor - The showman of Hindi cinema, Raj Kapoor is rightly described as a megastar, producer, director and actor. Through dint of his merit and potential, Raj Kapoor carved out a special place for himself in Indian cinema. His innings in Bollywood began as a clapper boy. At the age of just 11 he worked in his first film, Neel Kamal. Not surprisingly, Raj Kapoor set up his own Studio and made his first feature film (at 24), Aag, which was a huge success. This was followed by "Barsaat" and "Shri 420".

Invariably all Raj Kapoor's films came with some serious message and appealed to every section of society, particularly the common man. Raj Kapoor was anguished by evil and inequitable world order. In many of his films Raj Kapoor played vagabond or beggar like figure who, despite all odds, could still be cheerful and honest. The greatest achievement of Raj Kapoor as director and actor is that his films were not only liked in India but also in other countries like large parts of Africa, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union.

Raj Kapoor was sensitive to the requirements of film audiences. This was the main reason why he departed from his early and favorite theme of portrayal of the problems of common man to that of adolescent romance. After the failure of his ambitious "Mera Naam Joker", Raj Kapoor gave more sensual shade to his movies. This trend started with "Bobby" and continued up to "Ram Teri Ganga Maili". Raj Kapoor is also credited with introducing many new faces including his sons Rishi and Rajiv, Nimmi, Dimple Kapadia, Zeenat Aman and Mandakini. Music directors Shankar-Jaikishan, lyricist Hasrat Jaipuri also started off with Raj Kapoor films.

Raj Kapoor was born as Ranbir Raj Kapoor in Samandru, Peshawar (now in Pakistan). He was son of actor Prithviraj Kapoor. He moved along with his family to Mumbai in 1929. His carrier in the film industry began as clapper boy and later as assistant to Kedar Sharma. Raj Kapoor married Krishna, his father's second cousin, in the year 1946. Despite being married Raj Kapoor also had a longtime romantic relationship with actress Nargis during the fifties. Raj Kapoor died in 1988. At the time of his death he had been working on the movie Henna (Indo-Pakistani love story). Henna was later completed by his son Randhir Kapoor. Raj Kapoor was given the Dadasaheb Phalke Award 1987, for lifetime commitment to Indian cinema.