Raj Kapoor

Raj Kapoor was born as Shrishti Nath Kapoor on 14 December 1924 at Kapoor Haveli, a large house then owned by his grandfather in the Qissa Khwani Bazaar neighborhood of Peshawar, in the North-West Frontier Province of British India, into a Punjabi Hindu Khatri family. He had an Arya Samaji upbringing. His parents were Prithviraj Kapoor (3 November 1906 – 29 May 1972) and Ramsarni Devi Kapoor (née Mehra) (25 December 1908 – 14 June 1972). As per what Raj Kapoor's son Rishi Kapoor stated in his autobiography Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored, "It was he (Prithviraj Kapoor) who changed the family name from Nath to Raj, so that Prithvi Nath Kapoor became Prithviraj Kapoor. My father was named Shrishti Nath Kapoor at birth, but this was changed to Ranbir Raj Kapoor, which in turn became Raj Kapoor." Based on his father's name, Rishi Kapoor's son was named Ranbir Kapoor. The Kapoor family hailed originally from Samundri, a town in the Lyallpur District of the Punjab Province of British India (now in the Faisalabad District of Punjab, Pakistan).

Raj Kapoor was the eldest of six children in the family. He was the grandson of Dewan Basheshwarnath Kapoor, great-grandson of Dewan Keshavmal Kapoor, and great-great-grandson of Dewan Murli Mal Kapoor, and was part of the Kapoor family. His brothers were the late actors Shammi Kapoor (21 October 1931 – 14 August 2011) and Shashi Kapoor (18 March 1938 – 4 December 2017). He also had a sister named Urmila Sial (30 December 1933 – 25 July 2001). Two other siblings between Raj and Shammi, namely Devinder (Devi) and Ravinder (Nandi) died in infancy, within a gap of two weeks, both in the year 1931. Devi died of double pneumonia while Nandi died after accidentally swallowing rat poison while playing in the garden. Kapoor's family later on moved from Peshawar to Bombay for residence and for education.

As Prithviraj moved from city to city early in his career during the 1930s, the family had to move too. Raj Kapoor attended several different schools like Colonel Brown Cambridge School in Dera Doon, St Xavier's Collegiate School in Calcutta and Campion School in Bombay.

Debut and struggle (1947–1948)

At the age of ten, Raj Kapoor appeared in a Hindi film for the first time, in the 1935 film Inquilab.

Some early success came with the lead role in 1947 with Kidar Sharma's romantic drama Neel Kamal opposite Begum Para and Madhubala. The film wasn't a success, much like his other releases the same year viz. Dil Ki Rani, Chittor Vijay again both opposite Madhubala alongside Jail Yatra opposite Kamini Kaushal. In 1948, he founded his own banner R. K. Films and made his directional debut with the musical drama Aag in which he starred alongside Nargis, Premnath, Kamini Kaushal and Nigar Sultana. The film was an average grosser, but received positive reviews from critics. Aag also marked the first time Kapoor and Nargis were seen together as an on-screen romantic pair.

Superstardom and international success (1949–1964)

Several films released in 1949 had a major influence on Kapoor's career. His first release Sunehre Din flopped commercially, but his next release, Parivartan, emerged as a commercially successful venture. His third release of the year, Mehboob Khan's romantic drama Andaz, which also starred Dilip Kumar and Nargis, went on to become highly successful at the box office. This was followed by Barsaat, which he also directed and produced. The film went ahead of the former, eventually emerging as the highest grossing Indian film of all time, breaking the record of Kismet. It ran in Kolkata's Paradise Cinema for almost two years. The huge box office success of Andaz and Barsaat made Kapoor one of the leading male stars of the time along with Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand.

The following year, he starred in Sargam and Dastan opposite Rehana and Suraiya, respectively. Kapoor also acted in the 1950 film Pyar, which was not a hit movie and not a popular movie, and did not receive critical acclaim. In that film, the singers were Kishore Kumar, Geeta Dutt, and Shamshad Begum. The film had a total of nine songs, with Kishore Kumar singing five songs which were two solos and three duets. The three duets Kishore had was two duets with Geeta Dutt and one duet with Shmashad Begum. Geeta Dutt singing six songs, which were two duets with Kishore Kumar and four solos, and Shamshad Begum singing only one song which was only one duet with Kishore Kumar. This movie marked the first, and last time Kishore Kumar sang for Raj Kapoor, and it was rare for only one male singer to sing in one film as in most of his films, more than one playback singer sings for him in his films, and Raj Kapoor's major playback singers for him were Mukesh and Manna Dey. He also acted with his 'discovery' Nimmi, this time opposite him, for the first and last time, in Banwra. He also reunited with Nargis in Jan Pahchan. Both these films went unsuccessful but Bawre Nain, where he was cast opposite his future sister-in-law Geeta Bali, for the first and last time, emerged as one of the highest grossers of 1950.

Kapoor had only one release in 1951 which was his own directional, the crime drama Awāra co-starring Prithviraj Kapoor and Nargis. The film opened to highly positive response from critics as well as the audience and proved to be another major success for the actor. Its soundtrack composed by Shankar–Jaikishan was the best-selling Hindi film music album of the 1950s and became popular in foreign markets as well, especially in the Soviet Union, China, Turkey and Afghanistan. Awāra also earned Kapoor a fan-following in Soviet Union where the film had approximately 100 million admissions and remains the third-most watched foreign film in the country. In 1952, he reunited with Nargis for psychological drama Anhonee and crime noir Bewafa which also starred Ashok Kumar, in which he played a full-fledged negative character (title role) for the only time in his career. While Anhonee was a success, Bewafa only managed average returns. His other films with Nargis in 1952, Amber and Ashiana too failed to attain commercial success. This was followed by a minor setback, the next year as none of his films, including Aah, Dhoon and Papi, all opposite Nargis, worked at the box office. Papi remains the lone film in Kapoor's career when he played double role.

After having made a cameo in the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Boot Polish in 1954, he made a comeback in 1955 with the comedy drama film Shree 420, co-starring Nargis and Nadira, which garnered critical acclaim and emerged as the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. Its songs, such as "Mera Joota Hai Japani", a solo by Mukesh, "Pyar Hua Iqrar Hua", a duet by Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar, and "Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh", a duet by Dey and Asha Bhosle, topped the year-end annual list of Binaca Geetmala and made its soundtrack the fourth best-selling Bollywood album of the 1950s. Shree 420 was released in the Soviet Union in 1956 and it took 2nd spot at the Soviet box office charts that year. Despite being imported at an unusually high price, it was the most successful foreign film of the year at the Soviet box office, drawing an audience of 35 million viewers. At the 3rd National Awards, it won National Award for Second Best Feature Film in Hindi. The following year, he starred in Anant Thakur's Chori Chori and Sombhu Mitra's Jagte Raho (which he also produced). Although underperforming commercially, the latter received acclaim and its Bengali version won Certificate of Merit at the 4th National Film Awards. Chori Chori and Jagte Raho also proved to be the final film appearances of Nargis opposite Kapoor. Chori Chori also saw Kapoor collaborating and sharing screen with Johnny Walker for the only time in their careers.

After delivering a moderate fare with Sharada in 1957, Kapoor delivered two successful films, the next year - Phir Subha Hogi and Parvarish, both co-starring Mala Sinha. In 1959, he collaborated with Hrishikesh Mukherjee for the comedy drama film Anari, which also had Nutan, Motilal and Lalita Pawar in the lead. The film took number one spot at the box office that year and was a blockbuster for Mukherjee whose last directional Musafir received lukewarm response from audience. The soundtrack of Anari became one of the best-selling Hindi film album of the decade. Especially the song "Kisi Ki Muskurahaton Pe", a solo by Mukesh, was very popular. For his performance in the film, Kapoor won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor. He also appeared in Kanhaiya, again opposite Nutan besides appearing in Main Nashe Mein Hoon opposite Mala Sinha, Do Ustad opposite Madhubala, Char Dil Char Rahen opposite Meena Kumari and which also starred his brother Shammi Kapoor; none of these films were successful.

Kapoor began the 1960s with Radhu Karmakar's Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (which he also produced), Manmohan Desai's Chhalia and S. M. Abbas' Shriman Satyawadi. Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai did very well at the box office. It won Kapoor several accolades, including National Award for Second Best Feature Film in Hindi, Filmfare Award for Best Film and his second Filmfare Award for Best Actor. Chhalia based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's "White Nights" was a moderate commercial success, but received positive response from critics. Lastly, Shriman Satyawadi, which marked the directorial debut of S. M. Abbas, also marked the only film to star Kapoor opposite Shakila, attained moderate success at the box office. From 1961 to 1963, he had only one success in C. V. Sridhar's melodrama film Nazrana (1961). In 1964, Kapoor had two releases, Dulha Dulhan opposite Sadhana and his own directional Sangam, co-starring Vyjayanthimala and Rajendra Kumar, which was the first Indian film to be exclusively shot abroad on locations including London, Paris and Switzerland and was also among the most expensive film of its time with the longest runtime for an Indian film up to that time. Sangam, which was Kapoor's first color film, was the second-highest-grossing film of the 1960s behind Mughal-E-Azam. Its soundtrack, composed by Shankar-Jaikishan, became very popular and included the songs "Dost Dost Na Raha", "Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega", "Bol Radha Bol", "Yeh Mera Prem Patra".

Sangam also proved to be one of the last major hits of Kapoor as a lead.

Extended family

He is the nephew of actor Trilok Kapoor, who is the younger brother of his father. His first cousin was director Vijay Kapoor who was the son of Trilok Kapoor and actor Subbiraj who was his father's sister's son. His father's cousin was film producer Surinder Kapoor, whose children are producer Boney Kapoor and actors Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor. His father's maternal first cousins were actors Kamal Kapoor, Ravindra Kapoor, and Nandkishore Kapoor. Kamal's grandson is filmmaker Goldie Behl. His maternal first cousin, Juggal Kishore Mehra, was a singer, whose step-granddaughter, Salma Agha, later became an actress and singer.

On 12 May 1946, Raj Kapoor married Krishna Malhotra (30 December 1930 – 1 October 2018), a first cousin of his father Prithviraj. She was then 15 and he was 21. Krishna was one of nine siblings, and following her marriage, many of them joined the Hindi film industry. Her brothers, Rajendra Nath, Prem Nath and Narendra Nath, later became actors, and her sister Uma is married to actor Prem Chopra.

Raj and Krishna Kapoor had five children: three sons, actors Randhir Kapoor (born 15 February 1947), Rishi Kapoor (4 September 1952 – 30 April 2020) and Rajiv Kapoor (25 August 1962 – 9 February 2021),and two daughters, Ritu Nanda (née Kapoor) (30 October 1948 – 14 January 2020) and Reema Jain (née Kapoor). Randhir is married to former actress Babita and is the father of actresses Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor. Rishi's widow is actress Neetu Singh and their son is actor Ranbir Kapoor. Kapoor's elder daughter, Ritu Nanda, was married to industrialist Rajan Nanda and their son is Nikhil Nanda, married to Shweta, daughter of actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan.

His grandson Nikhil's son, Agastya Nanda, made his acting debut with The Archies in 2023.

Kapoor had a longtime romantic relationship with actress Nargis Dutt during the 1940s and 1950s, despite being a married man, although neither ever publicly admitted to this. The couple starred in several films together, including Awaara and Shree 420. As Kapoor would not leave his wife and children, Nargis ended their relationship after Chori Chori and married her co-star Sunil Dutt with whom she fell in love on the set of Mother India (1957). In 2017, his second son Rishi confirmed his father's affairs in his autobiography Khullam Khulla.

Krishna Raj Kapoor died on 1 October 2018. Rajan Nanda, husband of Ritu Nanda, died on 5 August 2018. In January 2020, Ritu Nanda herself died. She was followed three months later by her younger brother Rishi, Kapoor's second son, who died in April 2020. Kapoor's third and youngest son, Rajiv, died in February 2021.