He started his career as a clapper boy, got his first film chance at the age of 11 and set up his own studio at the age of 24! The all-rounder and the greatest showman of Indian Cinema, Raj Kapoor has an eternal charisma who is one of the most celebrated personalities of Bollywood. One of the six children of actor Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor made his first feature film, 'Aag', which is the first of his many early successes, including 'Barsaat' in 1949 and 'Shri 420' in 1955.
Raj Kapoor’s films were internationally famous of which Awara was widely acknowledged by the Turks, Egyptians, Russians and Europeans. Such was the film’s craze that it was remade in Turkey as Avaray! He was successful in reaching out to every section of society, in particular the mythical 'common man'. He is regarded as the 'Charlie Chaplin of India', who also did many patriotic films like 'Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hein', which had great songs like 'Mera joota hain japani'.
Later in his career, with a disappointing box office failure of his ambitious Mera Naam Joker, which took six years to complete, his movies took a more sensual turn. The film 'Bobby' (1973) introduced Dimple Kapadia, which owed a phenomenal success. Raj Kapoor kept up the trend of highlighting sexuality in later films like 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' (1978) and 'Ram Teri Ganga Maili' (1985). Though he faced few criticisms, his sensitivity to the requirements of film audiences can’t be dismissed. Many films over the decades borrowed his films’ themes and even today it’s considered a compliment for a commercial film to be compared to one of his works.
