JEETENDRA: A VETERAN OF OVER 200 MOVIES

Jeetendra got his first break in V.Shantaram's movie Navrang (1959) as Sandhya's double.He was born in a business family, who dealt in imitation jewellery.They were suppliers to V.Shantaram's film and it was then Shantaram asked Jeetendra to act in his movie.

His first break as a Bollywood leading man came in 'Geet Gaya Patharon Ne'. Although Jeetendra (his original name was Ravi Kapoor) was born on April 7,1942.

Ravi had met his present wife,Shobha,when she was only 14.She completed school,went to college,and was employed as an Air Hostess with British Airways. It was not until the release of 'Bidaai" (opposite Leena Chandavarkar) on October 18,1974,that Jeetendra and Shobha decided to get married, which they did in a simple ceremony at Janki Kutir with only a few family and friends present (Gulzar,and Sanjeev Kumar amongst the noted celebrities).The marriage was arranged hastily,as even Shobha's mom,who was in Japan at that time,could not attend.

Shobha gave birth to a daughter,Ekta,and subsequently to a son,Tusshar. While Ekta became a producer of TV serials, mostly starting with 'K',Tusshar followed in his dad's footsteps.Ekta and Ravi run a production company by the name of Balaji Films,and have produced 5 Bollywood movies,2 of which have Tusshar in the lead role.Their TV productions are usually in Hindi or Tamil languages.