Ranbir Raj Kapoor (pronounced [raːdʒ kəˈpuːɾ]; born Shrishti Nath Kapoor; 14 December 1924 – 2 June 1988), popularly known as Raj Kapoor was an Indian actor and filmmaker who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors and filmmakers in the history of Indian cinema. He has been referred to as The Greatest Showman of Indian Cinema as well as The Charlie Chaplin of Indian Cinema.
Born in Peshawar as the eldest son of Prithviraj Kapoor of the Kapoor family, Raj Kapoor starred in and produced many films for which he received multiple accolades, including three National Film Awards and 11 Filmfare Awards in India. He was inspired by Charlie Chaplin and played characters based on The Tramp in films, such as Awāra (1951), Shree 420 (1955) and Mera Naam Joker (1970). His performance in Awāra was ranked as one of the "Top-Ten Greatest Performances of All Time in World Cinema" by Time magazine in 2005. His films Awāra (1951) and Boot Polish (1954) competed for the Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1951 and 1955.
His films were global commercial successes in parts of Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Soviet bloc. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1971 for his contributions to the arts. India's highest award in cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, was bestowed to him in 1988 by the Government of India.
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.
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.
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.