Shashi Kapoor
Bollywood actor from an Indian showbusiness dynasty who found international fame in Shakespeare Wallah and Heat and Dust
SHASHI KAPOOR, who has died aged 79, was one of Bollywood’s most recognisable, dashingly good-looking and photogenic stars throughout the Sixties and Seventies, and one of the first Indian actors to find international fame.
Although he never quite reached the heights of his one-time Bollywood co-star, Amitabh Bachchan, Kapoor became well known to western audiences, chiefly through his work in English-language films for Merchant Ivory Productions. He took the lead in the company’s very first film, The Householder (1963), playing Prem Sagar, a naive young teacher whose sexual inexperience and intrusive mother put intolerable strain on his arranged marriage to Indu (Leela Naidu).
The director James Ivory was immediately struck by the “extraordinarily handsome” 23-year-old, while the producer, Ismail Merchant, later recalled gatecrashing a party at Kapoor’s house, marching up to the bemused actor and declaring: “I’m here from America to make films and you will star in them.” Although initially taken aback, Kapoor was charmed by the producer’s promise to make him “an international star”.
The meeting also came at an opportune moment: the actor’s previous lead roles in Char Diwari and Dharmputra (both 1961), though acclaimed critically, failed to take off at the box office, but The Householder – a light-hearted but effective satire on the changing values of Indian society – proved to be his breakout performance. It also marked Merchant Ivory’s first collaboration with the screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and Kapoor would work with all three again on Shakespeare Wallah (1965), Bombay Talkie (1970) and Heat and Dust (1983).
Born in Calcutta on March 18 1938 during the British Raj, Balbir Prithviraj Kapoor was the third and youngest son of Prithviraj Kapoor, a renowned actor and theatre and film pioneer who established the Kapoor family as a showbusiness dynasty that still plays a dominant role in the Hindi film industry today.
Despite appearing as a child performer in Aag (1948), Sangram (1950) and Awaara (1951), Kapoor spent much of his early life acting in plays directed and produced by Prithvi Theatres, a travelling troupe established by his father that toured India with up to 150 members. It was through Prithvi Theatres that Kapoor met his future wife, Jennifer Kendal, in 1956. At the time, Jennifer and her sister Felicity were lead actresses in the touring company Shakespeareana, the brainchild of their English parents Laura and Geoffrey, who were passionate about bringing Shakespeare to India.
Kapoor joined the company and became infatuated with Jennifer Kendal after seeing her as Miranda in The Tempest. Their budding romance was later fictionalised in Shakespeare Wallah, an elegiac drama which features Kapoor alongside Felicity Kendal as nomadic actors who fall in love while touring the Bard’s plays around India. The dwindling audiences for theatre and the rise of Bollywood is a major theme of the film, and one that was mirrored in real life.
After marrying in 1958, Kapoor and Jennifer Kendal left Shakespeareana and Kapoor turned to screen acting to make ends meet. The loss of his two actors was a huge blow to Geoffrey Kendal and led to an estrangement that lasted until the birth of his grandson Kunal in 1960 (after seeing Shakespeare Wallah, Geoffrey is said to have written to his daughter that Kapoor should “go into films in English with foreign directors who know how to exploit him”).
During this period, Kapoor signed up for almost every film that came his way. By the end of his career he had appeared in more than 100 and produced six more, even though he disliked many aspects of screen acting such as “lip synching”.
One of his most notable collaborations was with the celebrated Indian actress Nanda, with whom he appeared in eight films. Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965), with its heady mix of drama, romance and music, is in many ways the archetypal Bollywood film and was a big hit with audiences. Nanda later named Kapoor as her favourite screen actor.
Kapoor’s profile in Indian cinema, however, is largely due to the nine films he made with Yash Chopra, a director who helped to develop the characteristic look and feel of Bollywood. The action thriller Deewaar (1975), in particular, is considered one of the most influential Indian films ever made.
An often cited scene involves the brothers Ravi (Kapoor) and Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) squabbling over Vijay’s ill-gotten gains. When Vijay brags: “Today I have lots of money, a bungalow, a car, a servant, bank balance. What do you have?”, Ravi replies: “I have my mother!” This riposte, delivered as “Mere paas maa hai!” in the film, is still a household phrase in India, usually as a rebuke to someone who has gained the entire world but lost his soul.
Deewaar was a box-office sensation and had a huge influence on world cinema, later serving as an inspiration for Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Kapoor and Bachchan eventually appeared in 12 films together, including Kabhi Kabhie (1976), Trishul (1978), Kaala Patthar (1979), Suhaag (1979) and Namak Halaal (1982).
Kapoor’s success allowed him and his wife to establish a permanent home for Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, which had long been his father’s dream.
Even at the peak of his fame, Kapoor was a humble and selfeffacing figure. He frequently introduced himself to people on film sets with the words “Mera naam Shashi Kapoor hai”, as if he was a stranger.
While shooting Paap Aur Punya in 1974, Kapoor struck up a close rapport with Saif Ali Khan, the two-year-old son of his co-star Sharmila Tagore. Saif was apparently so distressed during the filming of a scene in which Kapoor is attacked by a villain that he crawled up and bit the “villain” on the leg, in order to protect “Shashi uncle”.
Kapoor’s film career slowed noticeably after the death of his wife Jennifer from cancer in 1984. Those close to him say that he never fully recovered from the loss and sought refuge in alcohol and food. Although there were occasional film appearances, most notably alongside Pierce Brosnan in The Deceivers (1988) – which reunited him with the producer Ismail Merchant – and in Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987), directed by Stephen Frears, this period saw a decline that eventually resulted in obesity, heart problems and cirrhosis of the liver. In his later years Kapoor also suffered from dementia, and his film work stopped altogether in the late 1990s.
Among his many honours he was presented with the coveted Padma Bhushan award by the Indian government in 2011 and was further honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2014, India’s highest award in cinema.
He is survived by a daughter and two sons.
Shashi Kapoor, born March 18 1938, died December 4 2017