Prithviraj Kapoor (
Hindi:पृथ्वीराज कपूर, Pṛithvīrāj Kapūr), 3 November 1901 –29 May 1972) was a pioneer of
Indian theatre and of the Hindi film industry, who started his career as an actor, in the silent era of
Hindi cinema, associated with
IPTA and who founded
Prithvi Theatres, a travelling theatre company based in Mumbai, in 1942.
Early life
His father, Dewan Basheswarnath Kapoor, was a sub-inspector of
police. Prithviraj received his initial education at Khalsa College
Lyallpur and at
Lahore. His paternal grandfather, Dewan Keshavmal, was a powerful influence during his childhood. Baseshwarnath was posted at
Peshawar, and so Prithviraj received his higher education at the
Edwardes College,
Peshawar,
Pakistan
and joined a one year program in Law to become a Lawyer. It was here
that his talents on stage first received expression. Prithviraj’s son
Shammi
recollectsthat Prof. Jai Dayal, a member of the faculty, was
instrumental in nurturing his talent. The professor was in love with an
English lady by the name of Nora Richard, who in turn was a theatre
aficionado with a passion for
Shakespeare and
Ibsen.
The couple found Prithviraj the perfect material for many roles in the
plays they mounted. This was his grounding in the art of the theatre.
Career
Prithviraj did his B.A. at Edwardes College,
Peshawar,
a feat that few of his descendants were destined to match. He also
studied law as a graduate student for one year, but his heart was in the
theatre. In 1928, with the help of a loan from his aunt, Prithviraj
moved to the city of
Bombay (present-day Mumbai) which is the hub of the
Hindi film industry.
He acted as an extra in his first film role, though he grew up to get a lead role for his third
Cinema Girl in 1929. After featuring in nine silent films, Kapoor did a supporting role in
India‘s first film talkie,
Alam Ara (1931). His performance in
Vidyapati (1937) was much appreciated. His best-known performance is perhaps as
Alexander the Great in
Sohrab Modi’s
Sikandar (1941). He also joined the only English theatrical company called ‘
J. Grant Anderson’
which remained in India for a year. Through all these years Prithviraj
remained devoted to the theatre and performed on stage regularly. He
developed a reputation as a fine actor on both stage and screen.
Prithvi Theatres
By 1944, Prithviraj had the wherewithal and standing to found his own theatre group,
Prithvi Theatres, its premiere performance was,
Kalidasa‘s “
Shakuntala” in 1944. His eldest son,
Raj Kapoor,
had already struck out on his own; the films he produced had been
successful and this was also an enabling factor. Prithviraj invested in
and founded
Prithvi Theatres,
a travelling troupe which staged memorable productions across India. In
over 16 years of existence, the theater staged some 2,662 shows.
Prithviraj starred as the lead actor in
every single show.
By the late 1950s, it was clear that the era of the travelling
theatre was past; that art-form had been irreversibly supplanted by the
cinema. No longer was it financially feasible for a troupe of up to 80
people (as Prithvi theatre was) to travel the country for four to six
months at a time with their tons of stage props and equipment, living in
hotels where possible and at campsites otherwise. The financial
returns, through ticket sales and the rapidly diminishing
largesse
of patrons from the erstwhile princely class of India, was just not
adequate to support such an effort. Many of the fine actors and
technicians that Prithvi Theatres nurtured had found their way to the
movies. Indeed, this was the case with all of Prithviraj’s own sons. As
Prithviraj progressed into his 50′s, he gradually ceased theatre
activities and accepted occasional offers from film-makers, including
his own sons. Later, under his son,
Shashi Kapoor, and his wife
Jennifer Kendal,
it merged with the Indian Shakespeare theatre company,
“Shakespeareana”, and the company got a permanent home, with the
inauguration of the “Prithvi Theatre” in
Mumbai 5 November 1978.
Postage stamp
In 1996, the ‘Golden Jubilee year’ of the founding of Prithvi Theatre,
India Post, issued a special two Rupee, ‘commemorative’ postage stamp in
New Delhi,
[11] it featured the logo of
Prithvi Theatre 1945-1995, and an image its founder ‘
Prithviraj Kapoor’,
without the name, as just his face seemed enough, being the legend that
he had become in his lifetime and beyond in Hindi theatre. The first
day cover, (stamped 15-1-95) showed an illustration of performance of
travelling theatre in progress, on a stage that seem fit for a
travelling theatre, as Prithvi theatre was for sixteen, till 1960.
Later years
Kapoor starred in the legendary religious Punjabi film Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai (1969), a film so revered in Punjab that there were lines many kilometers long to purchase tickets.
He also starred in the Punjabi films Nanak Dukhiya Sub Sansar (1970) and Mele Mittran De (1972).
He also acted in a Kannada movie
Sakshatkara (1971) directed by legendary kannada director
Puttanna Kanagal. He acted as Rajkumar’s father in that movie
Stint as a Rajya Sabha member
Prithviraj was not only a great film personality, he was also a
dedicated social worker. He collected money for Hindu and Sikh refugees
who came from
West Punjab and
East Bengal
who fled to India in 1947, but when rightwing Hindus wanted revenge
from Muslims and threatened to drive them out of India, Prithviraj
campaigned strictly and vigorously against it in the best traditions of
Gandhian
humanism. In real life he represented Pathan and Punjabi
large-heartedness at its best. As a nominated member of the Indian upper
house of parliament, the
Rajya Sabha, Prithviraj pioneered a bill for the abolition of the
death penalty.
In an interview, his youngest son,
Shashi stated that,
Though Papaji was a close friend of Panditji,
he never took undue advantage of their friendship to gain Governmental
favours for the furtherance of his theatre. He himself supported his
practical dream financially as well as with full spirit and confidence
in himself and his students.
Other Social Works
He also earned money for the victims of the
1943 Bengal Famine by doing many plays, and donating the money earned from those plays for the needy in Bengal, and the nearby area.
He was chosen by the then Prime Minister
Pandit Nehru twice to go to China for the Indo-China peace-making programme.
Awards and honours
After his death in 1972, he was posthumously awarded the
Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 1971. He was the third recipient of that award, the highest accolade in
Indian cinema.
Prithviraj Kapoor’s descendants have contributed richly to the Hindi
film industry and he is thus reckoned the patriarch of the ‘first family
of Hindi films.’ All three of his sons Raj Kapoor,Shammi Kapoor,Shashi
Kapoor became noted actors and film-makers and two of his
daughters-in-law worked in the same field. Nearly all his grandchildren,
including
Randhir Kapoor,
Rishi Kapoor,
Rajiv Kapoor,
Karan Kapoor,
Kunal Kapoor, and granddaughter
Sanjana Kapoor have worked in the field of films, either as actors or film-makers or both.
Karisma Kapoor and
Kareena Kapoor,
two of the top film-stars of today, are Prithviraj’s
great-granddaughters, being the granddaughters of his eldest son Raj
Kapoor. His great-grandson
Ranbir Kapoor, son of
Rishi Kapoor, the fourth generation of leading heroes, made his debut in the Hindi film
Saawariya in 2007.
Personal life
As was customary in that era, Prithviraj married at a young age. At
age 17, Prithviraj married the 14-year-old Ramsarni Mehra, in a match
that was arranged by their families. Their eldest child,
Raj Kapoor,
was born in December 1924. By the time Prithviraj moved to Bombay in
1928, the couple were the parents of three children. In 1930, Ramsarni
joined Prithviraj in Bombay. The following year, while she was pregnant
for the fourth time, the couple suffered the tragic loss of two of their
three children in the space of one week. One of their children, Devi,
died of double pneumonia while the other child, Nandi, died of poisoning
in a freak incident when he swallowed some rat-poison pills strewn in
the garden.
He loved to play cricket and football, and was a keen athlete.
The couple went on to have four children further. All three of their surviving sons,
Raj Kapoor,
Shammi Kapoor and
Shashi Kapoor, were to become famous actors and film-makers in their own right. They also had one daughter,
Urmila Sial.
After his retirement, Prithviraj settled in Bombay, in a cottage called Prithvi Jhonpra near
Juhu beach. The property was on lease, which was bought by Shashi Kapoor, and later converted it into a small, experimental theatre, the
Prithvi Theatre. Both Prithviraj and Ramsarni suffered from cancer in their declining years and died within a
fortnight of each other. Prithviraj died on 29 May 1972 and was followed by his wife on 14 June the same year.
Almost all of Prithviraj’s students at Prithvi Theatre became famous under his fatherly guidance and love; namely, his sons
Raj Kapoor,
Shashi Kapoor,
Shammi Kapoor, actors
Sajjan,
Premnath,
Rajendranath, ,
Ravindra Kapoor,
Kamal Kapoor,
Zohra Saigal,
Sudesh Kumar,
Ramesh Saigal,
Mohan Saigal, directors and producers
L. V. Prasad,
Ramanand Sagar, playback singer
Mohammed Rafi, Music Directors
Ram Ganguly,
Sardar Mullick (Anu Mullick’s father),
Shankar-Jaikishen,
Ramlal, Dance Directors
Satyanaryan,
Suresh Bhatt, writer
Prayag Raaj among 40-50 other artistes.
Death
Prithviraj succumbed to
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
on 29th May, 1972, leaving behind an entire life dedicated to theatre
and cinema, a life spent in doing welfare for the needy, serving as a
Rajya Sabha member for 8 long years. He died in the
Tata Cancer Hospital in the afternoon.
Selected filmography
