Mumbai: Actor Randhir Kapoor turns 74 today.
Born 15 February 1947, Randhir Kapoor is the grandson of Prithviraj Kapoor and son of Raj Kapoor. He made his Hindi film debut as a child artist.
Randhir was seen as a child actor in Raj Kapoor’s film Shree 420. He made his acting and direction debut in a leading role in the family drama Kal Aaj Aur Kal (1971).
Randhir’s starring roles in the dramas Jeet (1972), Hamrahi (1974) and the romantic comedies Jawani Diwani (1972), Lafange (1975), Ponga Pandit (1975), Bhala Manus (1976) and the multi-starrers such as Raampur Ka Lakshman (1972) and Haath Ki Safai (1974) established him as a leading actor of Hindi cinema.
Randhir was in the news for his affair with actress Babita Shivdasani. The couple’s first film was Kal Aaj and Kal. The two fell in love with each other after working together in the film. While Randhir was a Punjabi, Babita belonged to a Sindhi family. When both of them spoke to their families for marriage, everyone turned against them.
Later, Raj Kapoor put a condition. She will have to say goodbye to the Hindi film industry post marriage. During that time women of Kapoor family i.e. daughters-in-law and daughters could not be actresses in movies.
So for a long time Randhir and Babita secretly continued their love story. However, Babita had said that if Randhir does not marry her, then he had to forget her. But the couple went ahead with the wedding and for the first time ever, an actress became a part of the Kapoor family through marriage.
But Babita had to leave her bright career. In 1971, she married Randhir and took care of the family. Shortly after marriage, Babita started getting angry with Randhir’s habit of drinking alcohol and started living separately with her two daughters, Karisma and Kareena Kapoor.
