Meet superstar, who started his career as extra, made director angry, then played actress' body double in his debut film

Born as Ravi Kapoor in Amritsar, Punjab, on April 7, 1942, Jeetendra is one of the biggest superstars in Hindi cinema. He has acted in multiple successful films such as Farz, Humjoli, Dharam Veer, Caravan, and Himmatwala among others. Jeetendra's first movie as a leading hero was V Shantaram's Geet Gaya Patharon Ne in 1964. But, the actor had already made his debut in Bollywood five years ago in 1959 when he played Sandhya's body double in Navrang, which was also directed by Shantaram.

Jeetendra's father Amarnath Kapoor supplied artificial jewellery to the industry and he often delivered the same to the film studios in his early days. When he requested his father that he also wished to see a film's shooting, Amarnath requested the director V. Shantaram to allow his son on his film sets. The director was very particular about visitors on his sets and thus, he suggested Jeetendra become an extra and work as a junior artiste in Navrang.

The Parichay actor recalled how he went on to become Sandhya's body double in the film in an old interview to Rediff.com in 2013. He told the portal, "We were shooting in Bikaner. Mr. V Shantaram was very particular about timing. I arrived late for dinner and he got very angry and told the production team to send me back. They told my make-up man not to get me ready for the next day’s shoot. The next morning, I got up at 5 am and requested my make-up man to get me ready. I went to Mr V Shantaram’s room in tears. He saw me all dressed up and was impressed. Since then, I left no chance to please him. I would do his chamchagiri (sycophancy) and did whatever he asked. So, I even became a body double for Sandhya."

The veteran actor's last film, in which he played one of the leading roles, was the 2005 romantic drama Ho Jaata Hai Pyar. In 2020, he made his OTT debut with the web series Baarish. Jeetendra's daughter Ektaa Kapoor produces TV series and films, and his son Tusshar Kapoor is also an actor.

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