Iconic actor Shashi Kapoor dies after long battle with kidney disease

MUMBAI: Shashi Kapoor, the youngest and the last of the famous Kapoor brothers, who found success as a romantic heart-throb in Bollywood as well as a serious actor in crossover English films, died on Monday evening in Mumbai at the age of 79.

Kapoor had been unwell for the past few days and was undergoing treatment at Mumbai’s Kokilaben Hospital, where he was admitted on Sunday night for treatment of a chest infection.

Kapoor was born on March 18, 1938 in Kolkata (then Calcutta), and his acting career began in the 1940s. As a child actor, Kapoor acted in Aag (1948) and Awaara (1951), where he played the younger version of the character played by his elder brother, the late Raj Kapoor (1924-1988). He also worked as an assistant director in the 1950s.

The third and youngest son of actor Prithviraj Kapoor, Shashi made his Bollywood debut as the lead actor in the 1961 hit, Dharmputra. He then went on to act in more than 150 films, including a dozen English language movies.

Besides his Bollywood fare, he was equally involved with arthouse cinema with movies such as New Delhi Times, Utsav, Junoon, Kalyug and 36 Chowringhee Lane. He also collaborated with Merchant Ivory Productions for films such as Shakespeare-wallah, The Householder and Heat And Dust.

In 2011, Kapoor was awarded the Padma Bhushan; he was awarded the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke award in 2015. In the 70s and 80s, he acted in hits namely Sharmilee, Aa Gale Lag Ja, Chor Machaye Shor, Jab Jab Phool Khile, Deewar, Namak Halal, Kaala Pathar and Kabhie Kabhie among others.

Shashi and his wife Jennifer Kendal set up the Prithvi Theatre in 1978 in Mumbai’s Juhu locality. Jennifer died of cancer in 1984.

The third Kapoor brother, Shammi Kapoor, died in 2011.

Kapoor is survived by daughter Sanjana Kapoor and his two sons, Kunal Kapoor and Karan Kapoor.

For the past few years, the veteran actor had been in and out of hospitals for treatment of a chronic kidney disease and was on dialysis. He underwent a bypass surgery in 2014. The funeral will be held on Tuesday morning.