Raj Kapoor

Raj Kapoor
Raj Kapoor;
Born	Ranbir Raj Kapoor; 14 December 1924; Kapoor Haveli, Peshawar, NWFP, British India (present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan)
Died	2 June 1988 (aged 63); New Delhi, India
Nationality	Indian
Other names	The Show Man
Citizenship	Indian
Occupation(s)	Actor, producer, director
Years active	1935–1988
Signature

Ranbir Raj Kapoor (14 December 1924 – 2 June 1988) was an Indian movie actor, producer and director.

Kapoor is thought of as one of the greatest and most influential actors and moviemakers in the history of Indian cinema.^[1] Kapoor won many awards. These include 3 National Film Awards and 11 Filmfare Awards in India. He was nominated twice for the Palme d'Or grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival. His performance in Awaara was named one of the top ten greatest performances of all time by Time magazine.^[2] His movies were popular worldwide, particularly in Asia and Europe.^[3] He was called "the Clark Gable of the Indian film industry".^[4]

The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1971.^[5]

Early life

Kapoor was born in 1924 to Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsarni Devi Kapoor.^[6] The Kapoor family is well known for their acting and directing in India.^[6]^[7]^[8] Kapoor's father, brothers, children and grandchildren have had success as actors or producers.^[7]

Kapoor acted in his first movie when he was only 10 years old.^[9]

Career

Kapoor was the lead actor for the first time in Neel Kamal (1947). His co-star was Madhubala. In 1947, he started his own movie company, R. K. Films.^[10] At 24 years old, he directed his first movie Aag. His co-star was Nargis. He and Nargis worked together in 16 movies, 6 of these were produced by Kapoor. His first major success as an actor was in the movie Andaz directed by Mehboob Khan. Andaz was the second-highest earning movie in 1949.^[11] The highest earning movie that year was Barsaat, also starring Kapoor.

He went on to produce and star in several hit movies made by his company including Awaara (1951), Shree 420 (1955), and Jagte Raho (1956). His movie Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai, directed by Radhu Karmakar, won Filmfare Award for Best Film.^[12] Kapoor also won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for the movie.^[12] The romantic musical movie Sangam was his first movie in colour.

In 1970, he produced, directed and starred in his movie Mera Naam Joker. The movie took more than six years to complete but it did not earn very much money.^[13]^[14] Later in 1973, his movie Bobby became the highest earning movie of the year^[15] and the second highest earning movie of the 1970s at the Indian box office.^[16] The movie was the first lead role for Kapoor's son, Rishi Kapoor.

Later movies produced and directed by Kapoor focused on the female lead character. The movie Prem Rog (1982) with Padmini Kolhapure won the Filmfare Award for Best Director.^[17]

Filmography

References

↑ "Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema". hcl.harvard.edu. 19 February 2015. Archived from the original on 18 January 2018.
↑ "All-Time 100 Movies". Time. 12 February 2005. Archived from the original on 11 October 2011.
↑ David Pendleton (19 February 2015). "Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema". hcl.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 18 January 2018. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
↑ Film World. T.M. Ramachandran. 1965.
↑ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 15, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 Jain, Madhu (2009). The Kapoors: The First Family of Indian Cinema (Revised ed.). Penguin Group India. ISBN 978-0-14-306589-0.
↑ ^7.0 ^7.1 Gupta, Rachit (Mar 18, 2016). "Meet the Kapoor family of Bollywood". Filmfare. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
↑ "Remembering an icon: Prithviraj Kapoor". The New Indian Express. September 9, 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
↑ "Raj Kapoor". IMBD. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
↑ Bose, Mihir (2006). Bollywood: A History. Tempus, 2006. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-7524-2835-2. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
↑ "Box Office 1949". Box Office India. 16 October 2013. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
↑ ^12.0 ^12.1 "Filmfare Awards - Awards for 1962". IMBD. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
↑ Jha, Lata (September 28, 2015). "Ten big-budget Bollywood box-office disasters". livemint. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
↑ "Cult Hindi films that flopped". Times of India. November 9, 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
↑ "Box Office 1973". Boxofficeindia.com. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
↑ "Top Earners 1970-1979". Boxofficeindia.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
↑ "Filmfare Awards - Awards for 1983". IMDB. Retrieved 30 November 2017.