the Kapoor family tree
For all your Kapoor Khazana reference needs (and beyond), here is a Kapoor family tree. This image is courtesy of Madhu Jain's book The Kapoors: The First Family of Indian Cinema (Penguin Books India, 2005). Click the picture to enlarge to legible size.
The dates and underlining are my own. My notations indicate who is of what generation: double underlines are for Prithviraj's children; single underlines are for their children; dashed lines for their children; etc.
If you'd rather read, the family tree goes like this, color-coded by major branch and with the names you probably recognize in bold:
Update to post (June 3, 2011): Here is another version of the Kapoor family tree from an old Filmfare, centered around Raj. I have used it to flesh out my list above just to keep all the information in one place! Thanks to reader Asli for the scan!
Update to post (March 23, 2016): Here's another Filmfare article outlining the family tree (with some good photos). http://www.filmfare.com/features/meet-the-kapoor-family-of-bollywood-12645-1.html#descArticle
* I don't know about you, but this is where my brain gave out. Raj Kapoor is related to Mithun Chakraborty! Talk about masala!
The dates and underlining are my own. My notations indicate who is of what generation: double underlines are for Prithviraj's children; single underlines are for their children; dashed lines for their children; etc.
If you'd rather read, the family tree goes like this, color-coded by major branch and with the names you probably recognize in bold:
- first and second generations: Prithviraj Kapoor (born 1906) is the father of Raj (Ranbir Raj, born 1924), Shammi (Shamsher Raj, 1931), and Shashi (Balbir Raj, 1938). Prithviraj and his wife Ramsarni (Rama) also had a daughter, Urmi (between Shammi and Shashi), and two children who died, Ravinder and Devinder.
- Prithviraj has a brother named Trilok Kapoor, who is a film actor too. He is best known for playing Shiva in mythologicals (with Nirupa Roy as Parvati). His son Vijay Kapoor directed a few films, and Vijay's sons Ajay and Sanjay also work in film/tv production.
- Raj's wife Krishna Malhotra is from a film industry family too. Her brothers Rajendra Nath, Prem Nath, and Narendra Nath are actors; Prem Nath married actress Bina Rai. Krishna's sister Uma married actor Prem Chopra.
- Raj's children with Krishna are Randhir ("Daboo," 1947; married Babita, who is a cousin of Sadhana and the daughter of actor Hari Shivdasani), Ritu, Rishi ("Chintu," 1952; married Neetu Singh), Rima, and Rajiv ("Chimpu," 1962).
- Raj's grandchildren are the most famous members of the fourth generation so far. They include Randhir and Babita's daughters Karisma ("Lolo," 1974) and Kareena ("Bebo," 1980, married to Saif Ali Khan, son of Sharmila Tagore) and Rishi and Neetu's son Ranbir (1982). Less famous but still industry-related are Ritu's son Nikhil, who married Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Badhuri's daughter Shweta, and Rima's son Armaan Jain, who has been an assistant director for Karan Johar's Dharma Productions and acted in one of his cousin-in-law Saif Ali Khan's productions.
- Shammi married actress Gita Bali (maternal aunt of Yogeeta Bali, who was briefly married to Kishore Kumar before divorcing him to marry Mithun Chakraborty*). They had two children, Aditya and Kanchan (married to Ketan Desai, director of Toofan and son of director Manmohan Desai). Gita died quite young and Shammi is now married to Neela Devi. Memsaab has met Shammi and Neela and says they are delightful.
- Shashi married English actress Jennifer Kendal, sister of the more widely-known actress Felicity Kendal. Jennifer and Felicity spent many years in India as part of Shakespeareana, the traveling theater company led by their parents, Geoffrey and Laura Kendal. Jennifer, Felicity, and Shashi all acted in Shakespeareana at various times; this era of their lives is described in Felicity's fabulous autobiography White Cargo and loosely fictionalized in the Merchant-Ivory film Shakespeare-Wallah, in which they (and the senior Kendals) all appear. Shashi and Jennifer's children are Kunal (married to Ramesh Sippy's daughter Sheena); Karan, whom you may have seen in 80s Bombay Dyeing advertisements; and Sanjana (once married to director/actor Aditya Bhattacharya, who is the son of filmmaker Basu Bhattacharya and writer Rinki Bhattacharya, the daughter of Bimal Roy), known in her own right for running Prithvi Theater, an amazing multi-generation labor of love for the stage built by Prithviraj, Shashi, Jennifer, and herself. All of Shashi's children acted in his films when they were young and also appeared as unsuccessful leads as adults.
Update to post (June 3, 2011): Here is another version of the Kapoor family tree from an old Filmfare, centered around Raj. I have used it to flesh out my list above just to keep all the information in one place! Thanks to reader Asli for the scan!
Update to post (March 23, 2016): Here's another Filmfare article outlining the family tree (with some good photos). http://www.filmfare.com/features/meet-the-kapoor-family-of-bollywood-12645-1.html#descArticle
* I don't know about you, but this is where my brain gave out. Raj Kapoor is related to Mithun Chakraborty! Talk about masala!
Comments
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/thanks-to-my-son-i-did-slumdog-i-didnt-know-who-danny-boyle-was/426841/0
I didn't know that Shweta had married into the Kapoor clan. The industry is so incestuous!!
I do not particularly like the Kapoor sisters. Ranbir is not as handsome as his parents, but he sure can act.
The original Kapoor boys ( Raj, Shammi, Shashi) had a fab upbringing. They toured with their father's theater group, got to hang out with the coolest actors and actresses at their movie studio and witnessed the formative years of Hindi cinema first hand.
I never got the appeal of Raj Kapoor, I think he was wonderful, but compared to his flamboyant bros, he was a little boring.
I think Beth said it before and I quote " I would love to be a 70's girl hanging out with Sashi Kapoor in the 70's Bombay" or something like that...
Kellie and Ness - I'm glad you're saying this, because it helps reassure me that I'm not crazy. That must be where I got the idea too, though it's been so long since I read the book I can't quite remember. But now that I have it in front of me.... On page 319 she refers to Anil Kapoor as "their clansman," and in the introduction on page xviii, she says "the 'other' Kapoors (Boney, Anil, and Sanjay) belong to the larger Kapoor clan from Peshawar." And apparently Tinu Anand and Prem Chopra are vaguely related too!
Of course, none of this is footnoted, so who knows. I wonder if in the interview Aaren cites there is a question of what degree of relation or perhaps some terms are being used in different ways by the people involved? Who knows!
Mita - That definitely sounds like something I would say! :D
The family tree blew my mind off. One always like to believe that one knows the Kapoor family inside out. Then one sees this. True true example of a Big Indian family.
-sunshin3girl
Asli Jat
sunshin3girl - And the more I read, the bigger it gets!
I never knew this tidbit, and find it quite fascinating.
http://www.123bollywood.net/clans.html
also, Shekhar Kapur's mom was Dev Anand/Chetan/Goldie's sister, not Raj Kapoor's.