Jeetendra

Jeetendra (born Ravi Kapoor ; 7 April 1942) is an Indian actor who is known for his work in Hindi cinema. He also serves as the chairman of the Balaji Telefilms and Balaji Motion Pictures.

Early life
Jeetendra was born in a Punjabi Khatri family as Ravi Kapoor in Amritsar, Punjab, to Amarnath and Krishna Kapoor, whose business dealt with imitation jewellery, supplied to film industry. He attended St. Sebastian's Goan High School in Mumbai, Mumbai with his friend Rajesh Khanna and then studied at Siddharth College in Mumbai. While supplying jewellery to V. Shantaram, he was cast as Sandhya's character's double in the 1964 movie Geet Gaya Patharon Ne after which his career never turned back.

1964–1970: Debut and breakthrough
Jeetendra began his career in 1964 playing the lead in V. Shantaram's Geet Gaya Patharon Ne alongside Rajshree. Despite heavy promotions and positive reviews, the film proved to be an unsuccessful venture domestically. After a brief period of absence from films, he established himself with Ravikant Nagaich's spy thriller Farz in 1967. A remake of Telugu film Gudachari 116 (1966), it emerged a blockbuster at the box office and made Jeetendra a star. The music of Farz was one of the best-selling Hindi film albums of the 1960s. Majority of its songs like – "Mast Baharon Ka Main Aashiq", "Baar Baar Din Ye Aaye – Happy Birthday To You", both solos by Mohammed Rafi and "Hum To Tere Aashiq Hain", a duet by Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar remain popular till date. In 1968, he had three releases – Suhaag Raat, Aulad and Mere Huzoor. While, Suhaag Raat and Aulad were critical and commercial failures, the lattermost co-starring Raaj Kumar and Mala Sinha received positive response from reviewers and did decent business at the box office.

In 1969, Jeetendra had three major commercial successes with L. V. Prasad's Jeene Ki Raah, T. R. Ramanna's Waris and Ravikant Nagaich's Jigri Dost. He began the 1970s with Chander Vohra's Khilona which also had Sanjeev Kumar and Mumtaz in the lead. The film emerged a huge hit with all the three leads receiving praise for their respective performances. He delivered another superhit that year with T. R. Ramanna's Humjoli which was a remake of blockbuster Tamil film Panakkara Kudumbam (1964).

1971–1979: Career slump and comeback
Despite kicking off the new decade on a successful note, Jeetendra saw a bad phase from 1971 to 1973 as majority of his films underperformed during this period, with Nasir Hussain's crime thriller Caravan (1971) opposite Asha Parekh being the only exception. It was a superhit domestically and an All Time Blockbuster in overseas markets, especially China were it is counted along with the all-time greats – Awaara (1951) and Noorie (1979). Caravan was also one of the best-selling Hindi film albums of the 1970s. Its music composed by R.D. Burman proved to be a cherry on the cake as most of the songs - "Chadti Jawani Meri Chaal Mastani", "Kitna Pyara Wada Hai" and "Piya Tu Ab To Aja" emerged instant hits and played a major role in the mega success of film. During this phase, he also received praise for his portrayal of a kind-hearted tuition teacher in Gulzar's light-hearted drama Parichay. The song "Musafir Hoon Yaroon" from Parichay was listed at #25 in the Binaca Geetmala annual list 1973 and is considered to be one of the most loved filmi songs of all time.

In 1974, Jeetendra played the lead in L. V. Prasad's Bidaai co-starring Leena Chandavarkar and Durga Khote. The film proved to be a blockbuster at the box office thus ending his dry run and also emerging one of the top 5 highest-grossing films of that year. After scoring two more hits in 1975 with Khushboo and Umar Qaid, the following year, he starred in the horror film Nagin opposite Reena Roy and the drama film Udhar Ka Sindur alongside Roy and Asha Parekh. Both the films did extremely well at ticket counters and were declared blockbusters by the end of their respective runs.

1977 proved to be a massive one for Jeetendra with a major blockbuster in Manmohan Desai's magnum opus Dharam Veer. In United Kingdom, the film had 23 shows in 5 cities. Driven by the success of Rafi's songs, the film took a record initial of £50,000 in the UK, equivalent to inr. In addition, the film sold 32 million tickets in the Soviet Union. The huge success of Dharam Veer was followed by a superhit in J. Om Prakash's third directional venture Apnapan. That same year, his final collaboration with Gulzar took place for the romantic drama Kinara opposite Hema Malini. The film is widely remembered for its heartwarming premise and the song "Naam Gum Jayega" sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Bhupinder. Jeetendra's good run continued in 1978 with another blockbuster in Dasari Narayana Rao's family drama film Swarg Narak which was a remake of director's own Telugu film Swargam Narakam. He also had major hits in Ram Maheshwari's Karmayogi alongside Raaj Kumar and K. Bapayya's Dil Aur Deewaar co-starring Ashok Kumar. He concluded the decade on a high with one more blockbuster in Rajkumar Kohli's ensemble horror thriller Jaani Dushman and a hit in Anil Ganguly's drama film Khandaan. He also appeared in T. Rama Rao's fantasy comedy Lok Parlok which ended up as an average fare.

With continuous flow of hits from 1974 to 1979, Jeetendra solidified his star-status.

1980–1990: Widespread success
Jeetendra reached his peak in the early 80s and enjoyed a strong innings throughout the decade. His first release of 1980 was J. Om Prakash's drama film Aasha which went on to become a massive blockbuster and remains his biggest solo hit till date. Its soundtrack composed by Laxmikant–Pyarelal dominated the musical charts and was one of the best selling Hindi film albums of the decade. His next release was Ravi Chopra's big-budget action thriller The Burning Train in which he starred alongside Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, Hema Malini, Parveen Babi and Neetu Singh. The film did average business at the time of release, but received praise for its well-choreographed action sequences as well as performances of the cast and attained cult status in later years. After having another moderate success in the form of Takkar, he concluded the year with three back-to-back hits in Jyoti Bane Jwala, Judaai and Maang Bharo Sajana. In 1981, Jeetendra starred in S. V. Rajendra Singh Babu's action crime film Meri Aawaz Suno. A remake of Kannada hit Antha, The film ran into controversies due to its bold subject, but opened to excellent audience response and proved to be a huge blockbuster at the box office. The same year, he had a superhit in Ek Hi Bhool and a moderate success in Jyoti which didnt do that well in India, but was a huge success in foreign countries. With his last few films doing extremely well at ticket counters, Jeetendra decided to produce and star in H. S. Rawail's romantic drama Deedar-E-Yaar (1982) under his home banner Tirupati Films. The film which also had Rekha, Rishi Kapoor and Tina Munim in the lead, failed to live up to the expectations and proved to be a major box office flop with minimal recovery of the investment. After this unexpected debacle, Jeetendra made a solemn vow never to return into filmmaking again. Despite the disastrous response to Deedar-E-Yaar, his other releases that year performed well commercially. He delivered a blockbuster in Farz Aur Kanoon followed by hits in Jeeo Aur Jeene Do, Chorni and Samraat. Jeetendra also co-starred alongside Raaj Kumar and Rajesh Khanna in Sultan Ahmed's dacoit-drama film Dharam Kanta and reunited with Dharmendra for Rajkumar Kohli's action thriller Badle Ki Aag, both of which were box office successes. 1983 proved to be one of the best years of Jeetendra's career as he delivered three major successes and made a hit pair with Sridevi. His first release of the year Nishaan flopped commercially, but his second release Himmatwala, a remake of Telugu film Ooruki Monagadu, emerged a blockbuster with its songs, including "Nainon Mein Sapna" and "Taki O Taki" becoming a rage. Himmatwala made Sridevi a big star and she went on to deliver many successful films with Jeetendra. His other notable releases of 1983 were – Jaanidost, Mawaali and Justice Chaudhury. While Mawaali and Justice Chaudhary performed very well at the box office and proved to be superhits, Jaanidost ended up as a moderate commercial success.

In 1984, Jeetendra appeared in Tohfa which was a remake of Sobhan Babu starrer Telugu superhit Devatha. Tohfa like the original opened to excellent response and emerged a blockbuster as well as the highest earner of 1984. This was followed by a superhit in Maqsad and a hit in Qaidi, the same year. 1985 also proved to be a big one for Jeetendra with five of his films emerging commercial successes, these were - Hoshiyar, Balidaan, Haqeeqat, Pataal Bhairavi and Sanjog. The following year, he added one more blockbuster in his kitty with K. Bapayya's family drama Swarag Se Sunder co-starring Mithun Chakraborty, Jaya Prada and Padmini Kolhapure. He also worked with Dilip Kumar in K. Raghavendra Rao's actioner Dharm Adhikari. Inspite of the presence of some of the biggest stars of the time, the film failed to live upto the expectations and ended up as an average fare. After the underperformance of Dharm Adhikari, he reunited with K. Bapayya and T. Rama Rao for Ghar Sansar and Dosti Dushmani respectively, both of which emerged box office hits.

In 1987, Jeetendra played the lead in Rakesh Roshan's directional debut Khudgarz. The film proved to be a superhit and established Roshan's career as a director. The same year, he delivered three more commercial successes with Sindoor, Himmat Aur Mehanat and Insaaf Ki Pukar. In 1988 and 1989 Jeetendra had hits in Kawal Sharma's action film Mar Mitenge and Saawan Kumar Tak's drama film Souten Ki Beti, respectively, but his other releases failed to do well. This changed the following year as he delivered couple of successes with films like Amiri Garibi, Agneekaal, Mera Pati Sirf Mera Hai and Thanedaar. The lattermost co-starring Jaya Prada, Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit took a bumper initial, eventually emerging a superhit and one of the top-grossing films of 1990.

1991–present: Later career
From 1991 to 1997, Jeetendra acted in many films both as a lead as well as character artist, but few of them did well commercially, such as Maa (1991), Bhookamp (1993), Rang (1993) and Judge Mujrim (1997). In 1999, he starred in Saawan Kumar Tak's Mother, which was a critical and commercial failure. In 2003, Jeetendra received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.

His last full-fledged Hindi film appearance was in Basit Khan's romantic drama Ho Jaata Hai Pyar (2005). It received negative response from reviewers and flopped at the box office. He then made a guest appearance in the song "Deewangi Deewangi" from Farah Khan's reincarnation drama Om Shanti Om (2007).

In 2020, Jeetendra made his digital debut with the romantic web series Baarish which had Sharman Joshi and Asha Negi in the lead.

Personal life
Jeetendra had met his wife, Shobha, when she was only 14. She completed school, went to college, and was employed as an Air Hostess with British Airways. When Jeetendra was struggling between 1960–66 to establish himself as an actor, he was in a relationship with Shobha and she was his girlfriend until 1972. It was not until the release of Bidaai on 18 October 1974, that Jeetendra and Shobha decided to get married, which they did in a simple ceremony at Janki Kutir with only a few family members and friends present. In her authorized biography, Hema Malini claimed that they almost got married, but she backed out.

Jeetendra and Shobha have two children from their marriage. Elder of them, daughter Ekta Kapoor, runs Balaji Telefilms while their son Tusshar Kapoor is also an actor. Jeetendra made a brief appearance in one of his daughter's produced films Kucch To Hai, a thriller movie released in 2003, where he appeared alongside his son Tusshar.

During the 6th November, 2021 episode of The Kapil Sharma Show, when Jeetendra and Ekta Kapoor were the guests, he related an incident from 1976. He was supposed to go to Madras (now Chennai) by flight on Karva Chauth. His flight got delayed and he went back home so that Shobha could perform the necessary rituals like viewing the Moon and break her fast. Shobha refused to let him go back to the airport. So Jeetendra called his make-up man and told him to come back home, and that they would leave the next day. Around 10:30 or 11:00 pm, he looked outside from his flat (on a high-rise in Pali Hill, Bandra) and saw a fireball hurtling toward the airport. Later, after a couple of hours, his phone rang incessantly with people calling to find out what happened. The flight that he was supposed to have taken had crashed. Shobha's prescient insistence that he should not go turned out to be a blessing. That flight was Indian Airlines Flight 171.

Awards and honours

 * 1998 – Guest of Honour Award at the 18th Ujala Cinema Express Awards
 * 2002 – Lifetime Achievement Award at the Zee Gold Bollywood Movie Awards in New York.
 * 2003 – Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award
 * 2004 – "Legend of Indian Cinema" Award at Atlantic City (United States).
 * 2005 – Screen Lifetime Achievement Award
 * 2008 – Sansui Television Lifetime Achievement Award
 * 2012 – Zee Cine Award for Lifetime Achievement
 * 2012 – Lions Gold Awards: Most Evergreen Romantic Hero

Reception and legacy


Jeetendra is regarded as one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema. He is noted for his acting, style and dance. Owing to his energetic dancing style in Farz, he earned the sobriquet of "Jumping Jack".

One of the most successful actors of 1970s and 1980s, Jeetendra appeared in Box Office India's "Top Actors" list seven times, (1980-1986).

In 2022, he was placed in Outlook India's "75 Best Bollywood Actors" list.