Shashi Kapoor: The Householder The Star

India’s first biography of Shashi Kapoor sheds light on one of the country’s most enigmatic personalities—an actor who straddles the worlds of commercial Hindi cinema theatre and small-budget art movies; who is at once an earnest householder and a committed star. In this rare book we are offered glimpses of Shashi Kapoor the family man—son of Prithviraj Kapoor husband of Jennifer Kendal and father to Kunal Karan and Sanjna. We are led through Shashi Kapoor’s film career—his debut as a bright-eyed child-actor in Awara; his emergence in the hectic 1970s as India’s busiest performer—with a slew of hits including Deewaar and Trishul; and his rise to international prominence with Merchant–Ivory’s The Householder and a ‘trilogy’ of films on older men with fading pasts. Equally we are provided with an astute analysis of Shashi Kapoor the businessman—the proprietor of Film-Valas; the producer of Shyam Benegal films; and the distributor of Bobby. With luminous and thus-far undisclosed stories by the actor’s family (Neetu Singh Rishi Sanjna and Kunal Kapoor) co-stars (Shabana Azmi Simi Garewal Sharmila Tagore) colleagues (Shyam Benegal Govind Nihalani James Ivory Hanif Kureishi Aparna Sen) and friends; a compelling foreword by Karan Johar; and stunning photographs from Merchant–Ivory’s archives Shashi Kapoor the biography—by one of India’s best-known film journalists—is as captivating as Shashi Kapoor the star.