Last updated:March 18, 2025, 08:08 IST

Shashi Kapoor is the veteran Bollywood actor for whom he has been said to be an actor who used to compete with Amitabh Bachchan. In his career, he acted in 116 films. Of these, 61 were his solo hero films. ,Read more

Shashi Kapoor was the first international star in India. File photo.

New Delhi. ‘We are not one of the disappearance … where we go through, we show the fire… Friends, what enemies also remember…’ This dialogue sits on Shashi Kapoor. The Bollywood actor who was called the Kapoor family, ‘The Handsome Kapoor’. Veteran actor Shashi Kapoor may not be among us today. But his memories are still fresh in the hearts and minds of people. Born in Kolkata on March 18, 1938, Shashi Saheb was the youngest son of Prithviraj Kapoor. The father was an artist and worked in films as well as running the theater company. Therefore, all those qualities were to come in Shashi Kapoor. Shashi Kapoor was so handsome that the actresses used to forget the dialogues after seeing their beauty.

Shashi Kapoor, who belongs to a family who brought Hindi cinema to new heights, gave more than one evergreen films in his film career. The father named Balbir Raj Kapoor, but the mother did not like it and started calling the son Shashi.

Shashi Kapoor became the heartbeat of millions of hearts
When Shashi, who started acting at the age of just 4 years, became a heartbeat of millions of hearts. Seeing the famous actress Shashi working with veteran actors like Rajesh Khanna, Shammi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra, he was sitting conscious.

Shashi Kapoor made his debut as a child artist. File photo.

Chhote Raj Kapoor was made in ‘Awara’
Shashi Kapoor started working in the 1951 film ‘Awara’. In this film, he played Raj Kapoor’s childhood. By the time, Shashi Kapoor joined the theater with his father Prithviraj Kapoor. When it came to films, Shashi Kapoor started working as an assistant director in his elder brother Raj Kapoor’s films, he has worked as an assistant director in the films ‘Mr. Satyavadi’ and ‘Dulha Dulhan’. In the year 1961, he entered the entry of Shashi Kapoor as a hero and this film was ‘Dharmaputra’. This film was made by Yash Chopra.

Nanda supported Shashi Kapoor in difficult times. File photo.

Why is ‘wretched’ called handsome actor?
Shashi Kapoor’s acting was very much liked. But, still his films were not able to run and there came a time that the media started calling him ‘wretched’. Some even said that no heroine agrees to work with him… In such a situation, Nanda said Shashi Kapoor, I will do the film with him. After the film ‘Jab Jab Phool Khile’, the pair of Nanda and Shashi Kapoor became a superhit pair.

Amitabh used to comply with Bachchan
His pairing with Amitabh Bachchan also got a lot in Shashi Kapoor’s golden career. The film Suhag, Wall, Two and Two Five prove that if someone used to comply with Amitabh Bachchan, he was only Shashi Kapoor. Although Shashi Kapoor is older than Bachchan Sahab, but he still played Amitabh’s younger brother in the film wall.

Sharmila Tegore has done many films with Shashi Kapoor. File photo.

Shashi Kapoor used to make everyone crazy
Shashi Kapoor’s style was like this. Thin, big eyes, their hair used to make everyone crazy. He used to wreak havoc on him with white teeth and dimples. On seeing such handsome, the actress who lost consciousness and no one today was the mistress of 2700 crores Sharmila Tagore. Which was lost on seeing them at first sight.

‘I was left watching them’
According to the BBC report, Sharmila Tagore had told that Shashi Kapoor came to meet his brother Shammi Kapoor on the set of ‘Kashmir Ki Kali’. At that time I was 18 years old. I was left watching them. He told himself, O my God, is Shashi Kapoor… I was not able to work. In such a situation, director Shakti Samanta was forced to say to Shashi that brother, you go from the set. The actress appreciated her in another interview. However, his feelings were true, but unfortunately his romance remained incomplete and his story never moved forward.