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 1959 movie Navrang after which his career never turned back.
Career
Jeetendra's active acting career spanned the 1960s to the 1990s. Jeetendra got his first major breaks with V. Shantaram's Geet Gaya Patharon Ne (1964) and Boond Jo Ban Gayee Moti (1967). However, it was the film Farz (1967) that served as his stepping stone to success. The tee shirt and white shoes he picked up from a retail store for the Mast Baharon Ka Main Aashiq number in Farz, became his trademark. Farz was followed by films such as Caravan and Humjoli, in which Jeetendra had more dance numbers. His vigorous dancing in the films won him the epithet; "Jumping Jack of Bollywood".
Jeetendra worked with Dharmendra and they had hits like Dharamveer, Jaani Dost, Insaaf Ki Pukar, Nafrat Ki Aandhi and flops like The Burning Train, Samrat, The Gold Medal, Jaan Hatheli Pe, Papi Devta, Dharam Karma. Childhood school and college friends Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra worked together and delivered 3 blockbuster films in the 1980, Dharam Kaanta, Nishan and Maqsad. In fact, all three films saw an increase in revenue. Maksah was the highest grossing film at the box office in the year 1984. Jeetendra made guest appearances in Roti, Palakon Ki Chhaon Mein and Begunah. all three films starring Rajesh Khanna as the solo lead. Jeetendra-Rekha had a romantic pairing in 26 films as the lead pair from 1972-1998 and out of their 26 films, 16 were hits and only 10 were flops. Apart from this, Rekha and Jeetendra worked in 5 more films, in which they were not paired with each other. Jeetendra-Sridevi did 16 films together between 1983-88 and out of them, 13 were hits and 3 were flops. Jeetendra and Jaya Prada paired each other romantically in 24 films and 18 of them were box office hits and 6 were flops. Apart from this, they did 2 more films together in which they were not paired with each other. Jeetendra gave 113 box office hits out of 198 films as the lead hero from 1964–1997 (hits like Navrang, Khilona, Roti, Omar Kaid, Rani Aur Laalpari, Naya Bakra, Anokha Bandhan, Begunah and guest appearances in Om Shanti Om He appeared as the main protagonist until 2007.
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.