Meet Kapoor family's first superstar, started as extra, did negative roles, later gave highest grossing Indian film ever

In the annals of Hindi film history, the Kapoor family will always stand as one of the most prominent and successful film clans, if not the most successful. The family has given a host of successful stars and superstars to Bollywood for four generations spread over eight decades. But who was the first of the Kapoors to taste sucess, the one who started it all? This is his success story.

The first star from Kapoor family

Prithviraj Kapoor is best known to this generation as Emperor Akbar from the iconic Mughal-e-Azam but the actor was much more than that. The patriarch of the Kapoor family was not just the first person from the family to taste success in films but also the first to venture into cinema. Born in 1906, Prithviraj Kapoor began acting in the theatres of Lyallpur and Peshawar in the undivided India of the 1920s. In 1928, he moved to Bombay and began acting in films. Initially, he did minor roles as a supporting artiste before bagging a lead role in his third film Cinema Girl, which released in 1930.

Prithviraj Kapoor’s initial career and rise to stardom

Prithviraj featured in nine silent films from 1929-31 before appearing as the villain in India’s first talkie – Alam Ara. In the initial years of his career, Prithviraj often played supporting or negative roles as the films with him in lead did not work at the box office. It was in 1933 that Prithviraj first tasted stardom. He played second lead in Rajrani Meera, which starred another up and coming actor KL Saigal. Both shot to stardom with the film. Prithviraj went on to appear in big films like Vidyapati (1937) and Sikandar (1941).

Prithvi Theatres and later career

By 1944, the actor started Prithvi Theatres, his own travelling theatre troupe. He became less active in films and focussed more on theatre from here on, staging over 2600 performances across India in the next 16 years. By the late-50s, when travelling theatre was no longer financially viable, Prithviraj shut the troupe and returned to cinema. In the meantime, he had appeared in supporting roles in a handful of films like Awara. But from there on, Prithviraj appeared in some iconic films, including Mughal-e-Azam, which remains the highest-grossing Indian film of all time when adjusted for inflation. Having extensively appeared in supporting roles in films in the 60s, the veteran actor’s last major appearance was in the 1971 film Kal Aaj Aur Kal. He passed away in 1972 with a couple of his delayed films releasing years after his death.

Prithviraj Kapoor’s legacy

Prithviraj had three sons, all of whom became successful actors – Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, and Shashi Kapoor. His grandsons Randhir and Rishi were also successful actors and great grandkids Ranbir, Kareena, Karisma are all active in Bollywood today. Prithviraj’s broher Trilok Kapoor was also an actor but did not taste much success, while his cousin Surinder Kapoor also became a filmmaker. Surinder’s oldest son Boney is a filmmaker himself while younger sons Anil and Sanjay are actors too. Actor Kamal Kapoor was also a cousin of Prithviraj.