Aane se uske aaye bahaar!

 

On the 7^th of April, we celebrate the 79^th birthday of an evergreen actor, who has spent 40 decades in the Hindi film industry and is still going strong.  Jeetendra.  He is a superstar of Hindi films, who has been reigning on the hearts of moviegoers since the 60s. Brought up in a chawl in Mumbai’s Girgaum, he now lives in Krishna, a palatial four-storey house in Juhu a luxurious suburb of the city -- his is truly a story of rags to riches, scripted straight out of the films he made a name for himself in.

 

At two years old

With his brother Prasann and mother, Krishna Kapoor

                                     

Born Ravi Kapoor in Amritsar in 1942, Jeetendra’s parents migrated to Mumbai when he was an infant about twenty days old.  They lived in Shyam Sadan chawl in Girgaum that housed 80 other families until 1959, when he was 18.  He recalls the days when he would run to fill bath water in drums from the single municipality tap in the tenement building, whenever there was water.  “Those were the best days of my life. Small things like this gave so much joy, which today even big things cannot. We used to live for the 11 days of the Ganpati festival. The puja, the dancing, the festivities…I still go there to do Ganpati sthapna and personally perform the puja every year,” he smiles. He firmly believes that one’s surroundings play a very crucial role in their upbringing and values.  “To the world, I might be a superstar. But in my heart, I am a typical lower middle-class Maharashtrian -- in language, in culture, in habits, everything. “In fact, I became a hero because I could speak the language so well. Growing up, we imbibed this way of life, these moral values and they will go with me to my grave.” he says.   

 

Revisiting his old home at Girgaum

                                                    

Conducting Ganesh Puja at Shyam Sadan

                    

"Krishna": Jeetendra's bungalow at Juhu, Mumbai

                          

Going back to his roots, he narrates how his father and uncle owned a costume/imitation jewellery shop which supplied these as accessories to films. As a teenager, he recalls doing the rounds of studios after school with his uncle, carrying bags of artificial jewellery for the artistes to their make-up rooms.  When his uncle was too busy, he would carry the boxes alone. It was the year 1959. Doing the daily rounds one day, he happened to land at Filmalaya Studios, where director V. Shantaram was filming Navrang. He tried to go on to the sets to watch the shooting, but wasn’t allowed.  In the evening at dinner, he complained to his uncle about not being allowed on the sets.  His uncle spoke to people at the studio, trying to wangle permission. They were told that the only way one could get on to Shantaram’s sets was by working on them, and that there were auditions going on for a prince’s role.  He was more than willing. “That day, instead of travelling by bus, I spent all my pocket money and took a taxi to the studio. When I got there, I found there were 200 princes all waiting to be auditioned. They were shooting the song, “Tu chhupi hai kahaan….if you look closely, you can still spot me in the crowd.  And that’s how I got cast in a bit role in my first film,” he remembers.    

 

Time passed.  In 1963, his dad fell ill and financially things took a downturn. Being the eldest in the family, he felt the pressure of fending for the family. Not having done well at college, he had no degree to fall back upon. “I thought of going back to the studios. To my mind, this was the only well-paying job that did not need any qualification.” He returned to Rajkamal Studios and met Anna (V. Shantaram) again, asking him for a job. Shantaram had no opening for him right then, but told him he would keep him in mind.  And he kept his word.  One day, Ravi (he wasn’t Jeetendra until then) got a call from the studio; Anna had found just the part for him. He was cast as the heroine, legendary actress, Sandhya’s body double.  When we see their pictures, we can understand why!  Later, he played bit roles in the film too.

When he was Ravi Kapoor

                                                     

Sandhya: Navrang's lead actress

Playing Sandhya's body double in this song   

Portions of the film were shot on location at Bikaner, in Rajasthan.  He learnt discipline there, getting thrown off the sets for late-coming. He got back into Anna's good books by turning up punctually the next day in full costume. He remembers needing 25 retakes for saying the line, “Sardar, dushman tiddiyon ke dal ki tarah aage badhta hi aa raha hai” and finally bursting into tears, when he still didn’t get the words right. On the 26^th retake, Shantaram okayed the shot, even though he stammered and mispronounced, “tiddiyon” in that take too.  “I can never forget my Annasaheb and his technical crew…they gave an irresponsible, raw, half-educated, total duffer like me the second chance I didn’t deserve.   I owe my entire career to Rajkamal … if it had not been for them, no one would have heard of me.”

 

V. Shantaram  -- A Legend in Marathi Cinema

His first lead role in Geet Gaya Patharon Ne opposite Rajshree 

In 1964, Shantaram cast him as the lead hero opposite his own daughter Rajshree in Geet Gaya Patharon Ne, her first adult role in a Hindi film. He was given the screen name of Jeetendra Kapoor, which eventually got shortened to just Jeetendra.  The film didn’t do too badly, but it didn’t bring him any good offers.  He continued to audition for roles, getting help with his dialogues and expressions from his classmate from St. Sebastian Goan English School, Rajesh Khanna, who was into full-time theatre.  Soon he hit big time as the singing dancing spy in Farz, (opposite Babita, mother of Karishma and Kareena Kapoor) in 1967. His Mast baharon ka mein aashiq track from the film with his self-chosen all-white costume and shoes became his trademark. It earned him the sobriquet of “Jumping Jack Jeetendra” in the film press, which has stuck to him ever since.

In Farz:  A Star is Born

In his iconic white outfit and shoes

                                                       

Farz proved to be the turning point, after which there was no looking back. Whatever he lacked in histrionics, he made up for with his hard work and reliability at the box-office. He practically lived on the sets, practicing his lines, his dance moves with or without his co-stars, and whether it was running around trees (Tumhari Kasam, Ek Hi Bhool, Mawaali), singing songs (Banphool, Humjoli, Jigri Dost, Caravan, Himmatwala, Justice Chaudhary, Tohfa, Lok Parlok) or playing serious characters (Jeene ki Raah, Parichay, Khushboo, Dulhan, Kinara, Meri Awaz Suno, Chhup, Bidaai, Badalte Rishtey, Aasha) or doing old man leading roles (Udhaar Ki Zindagi, Santaan, Pyasa Saawan), Jeetendra has always proved himself as an excellent bankable star material, whom audiences have showered abundantly with their love and appreciation down the years.  

  

The trademark song and dance routines that made him the darling of his audiences

In Maqsad with Sridevi

With Sridevi again, in Himmatwala

                                                                     

In Justice Chaudhry

                                                                     

With lemons rolling down the hillside

He is the only Indian actor to have appeared as a hero in nearly 200 films, repeatedly costarring with the biggest heroines of his time, such as Rekha, Hema Malini, Reena Roy, Sridevi and Jaya Prada.

 

In the 70s and 80s when first Rajesh Khanna and later Amitabh Bachchan ruled the roost, Jeetendra moved to the South and starred in Hindi films that were remakes of major hits in the south. Directors like K. Raghavendra Rao (Nishana, Farz Aur Kanoon, Himmatwala, Justice Chaudhury, Jaani Dost, Tohfa, Mera Saathi, Hoshiyar, Suhagan and Dharm Adhikari), K. Bappiah (Dildaar, Dil Aur Deewaar, Takkar, Mawaali, Pataal Bhairavi, Maqsad, Ghar Sansar, Majaal, Swarg Se Sunder) and T. Rama Rao (Lok Parlok, Judaai, Ek Hi Bhool, Yeh Desh, Maang Bharo Sajna, Dosti Dushmani, Insaf Ki Pukar) delivered blockbuster hits with him in the main lead. It is said that these producers signed him for 2 to 3 films at one time and payment to Jeetendra was made for each film at half the market rate of Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan.  But as he signed more films than them, his earnings did not suffer.

 

Those days, he would see his wife and children only on the weekends. His wife Shobha whom he married in 1974, after Bidaai became a superhit, would pick up their children Tusshar and Ekta, every Friday from school, and they would board the flight to Madras/Hyderabad, returning on Sunday night. Looking back, he says had it not been for these weekend visits, he would never have kept in touch with his children during their growing up years at all.

 

With his children, Ekta and Tusshar

Today, in semi-retirement, he spends most of his time with his grandchildren, Laksshya and Ravie Kapoor, both born out of surrogacy. “I am making up for lost time – reliving my children’s’ childhood which I could never be part of, by watching my grandchildren grow up."

 

With Tusshar, Ekta and their children, Laksshya and Ravie, and his wife Shobha (extreme left)

Of his children, Tusshar who studied abroad, followed in his father’s footsteps and joined Hindi films. He’s had a reasonably successful career. But the real surprise has been his daughter, Ekta Kapoor, who at the age of 19 made a foray into the world of television by producing her own serial, and by age 26, was running her own production company, Balaji Telefilms, with her mother Shobha Kapoor. She has been the producer of several leading television serials and has produced several hit films too, such as The Dirty Picture, Lipstick Under My Burqa, Once Upon a Time in Mumbai and has launched stars like Vidya Balan, Ram Kapoor, Rajiv Khandelwal, Ronit Roy, Prachi Desai and Sushant Singh Rajput. She has recently announced Goodbye, with Amitabh Bachchan and Rashmika Mandanna (a prominent actress of Telugu and Kannada films). They will play a father-daughter duo. Directed by Vikas Bahl, the film is co-produced by Reliance Entertainment and Balaji Telefilms. The film has gone on the floors with shooting commencing on April 2, 2020.

Cast of "Goodbye": Amitabh Bachchan and Rashmika Mandanna

In his long innings, Jeetendra, never got his due as a huge star. The English language film press always looked down upon “Jumping Jack Jeetu” with his tight white trousers and shiny white shoes and boisterous dance moves.  No one looked at Jeetendra as a star who commanded his own audience irrespective of whether it was Rajesh Khanna or Amitabh Bachchan, who was the ruling superstar. He has had a better hit rate than most of his contemporaries, and continues to remain at the crease.

  

With his childhood friend, Rajesh Khanna

With Amitabh Bachchan

The ever-fit and totally disciplined Jeetendra, returned to acting in 2020 with a Web series titled Baarish (starring Sharman Joshi). Given the tie-up between Ekta Kapoor’s Alt Balaji and Zee5, Baarish will be seen on both platforms from April 2021.

 

In a long career spanning forty decades, major awards may have eluded him (barring Filmfare/Screen/Stardust/Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Awards), but Jeetendra does count as a living legend of Hindi cinema. A career that began largely as the result of being in the right place at the right time, was actively sustained through humility, discipline and dedication and learning hands-on. Quite obviously, he never took anything for granted.

  

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Image credits: Google                                                                  Video credit: YouTube                                                                    Lead sketch of Jeetendra by Monica Saini