Prithviraj Kapoor View Biography 74 Views

The patriarch of what can be called the first family of Bollywood, Prithviraj Kapoor’s legacy has been carried down by four generations of film personalities. He also founded Prithvi Theatre and was one of the co-founders of IPTA.

Starting his career as a theatre actor in Lyallpur, Punjab, he moved to Mumbai in 1928 and started his film performance as an Extra. He did 9 silent movies and then got a role in the first talkies Alam Ara. However it was Vidyapati and Sikandar that brought him limelight and after spending time with the Grant Anderson Theatre Company he started his own Prithvi Theatre in 1944. The travelling theatre ran in to great success and he slowly started appearing in films made by his sons. He acted in Awara directed by his son and his greatest p[erformance came in Mughl e Azam as Emperor Akbar.

What will he be remembered as? The patriarch? Theatre actor? Part time film actor? Or someone who built a legacy? With four generation of Kapoors making ammark for themselves and Prithvi Theatre becoming a land mark in Mumbai, or for his performance in a Punjabi film Nanak Naam Ek Jahaz Hai, for which people queued up kilometres to buy a ticket? Perhaps the latter or may be all of them.

He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1971 and was Nominated to the Rajya Sabha between 1952 – 1960.

He passed away on 29th may, 1972.