Jeetendra

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.

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.

It was a superhit domestically and an all-time blockbuster in overseas markets, especially China were it is counted along with the all-time greats – Awaara (1951) and Noorie (1979).

Caravan also had a chartbuster soundtrack created by the then top composer R. D. Burman.

The music proved to be a cherry on the cake as most of the songs - "Chadti Jawani Meri Chaal Mastani", "Kitna Pyaar Wada Hai" and "Piya Tu Ab To Aja" emerged instant hits and played a major role in the mega success of film.

During this phase, he also received praise for his portrayal of a kind-hearted tution teacher in Gulzar's light-hearted drama Parichay.

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.

Jeetendra began his career in 1964 playing the lead in V. Shantaram's Geet Gaya Patharon Ne alongside Rajshree.

Despite heavy promotions and positive reviews, the film proved to be an unsuccessful venture domestically.

He delivered another superhit with T. R. Ramanna's Humjoli which was a remake of blockbuster Tamil film Panakkara Kudumbam (1964).

Apart from these two films, all his other releases of the year, such as – Maa Aur Mamta, Himmat and Jawab failed at the box office.

A remake of Telugu film Gudachari 116 (1966), it emerged a blockbuster at the box office and made Jeetendra a star.

The music of Farz composed by Laxmikant–Pyarelal was also very successful and included songs that remain popular till date like – "Mast Baharon Ka Main Aashiq", "Baar Baar Din Ye Aaye – Happy Birthday To You", both solos by Mohammed Rafi and "Hum To Tere Aashiq Hain", a duet by Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar.

He established himself with Ravikant Nagaich's spy thriller Farz in 1967.

In 1968, he had three releases – Suhaag Raat, Aulad and Mere Huzoor.

Both Suhaag Raat and Aulad failed to leave a mark and Mere Huzoor could only manage average business.

This changed in 1969 as he delivered a hat-trick of hits with Jeene Ki Raah, Jigri Dost and Waris.

With the rise of Superstar Rajesh Khanna in early 70s, a number of actors went through a decline in their career.

Initially, Jeetendra too saw some underperformers, but he never went out of the race and soon made a comeback.

He began the new decade with Chander Vohra's Khilona which also had Sanjeev Kumar and Mumtaz in the lead.

It proved to be a superhit with Kumar, Mumtaz and Jeetendra receiving praise for their respective performances.

Jeetendra saw a bad phase from 1971 to 1973 as majority of his films underperformed during this period, with Nasir Hussain's crime thriller Caravan (1971) opposite Asha Parekh being the only exception.

The song "Musafir Hoon Yaroon" from Parichay was listed at #25 in the Binaca Geetmala annual list 1973 and is considered to be one of the most loved filmi songs of all time.

In 1974, Jeetendra delivered a blockbuster with Bidaai.

The film ended his dry run at the box office and also emerged as one of the top 5 highest-grossing films of that year.

With continuous flow of hits from 1974 to 1979, Jeetendra became a huge star who was going to struck gold in the upcoming decade.

Jeetendra reached his peak in the early 80s and enjoyed a strong innings throughout the decade.

After scoring a decent success with another of Gulzar's film Khushboo in 1975, the next year he delivered two more blockbusters with Nagin and Udhar Ka Sindur.

1977 proved to be a massive one for Jeetendra as he had a historic blockbuster in Dharam Veer, a superhit in Apnapan and a hit in Dildaar.

In the United Kingdom, Dharam Veer had 23 shows in 5 cities.

Driven by the success of Rafi's songs, the film took a record initial of £50,000 in the UK, equivalent to inr.

In addition, the film sold 32 million tickets in the Soviet Union.

In 1978, he had two hits in Karmayogi, Dil Aur Deewaar and a blockbuster in Swarg Narak.

The blockbuster run continued in 1979 with Rajkumar Kohli's horror thriller Jaani Dushman which was also one of the most profitable films of the year along with Noorie, Dada and Sargam.

Before the end of year, he also delivered a hit in Anil Ganguly's drama Khandaan and an average grosser in T. Rama Rao's fantasy comedy Lok Parlok which was a remake of N. T. Rama Rao starrer Yamagola.

His first release of 1980 was J. Om Prakash's Aasha which went on to become a massive blockbuster as well as his biggest solo hit till date.

One of its song – "Sheesha Ho Ya Dil Ho", a solo by Mangeshkar secured 4th position in Binaca Geetmala that year.

His next release was Ravi Chopra's big-budget action thriller The Burning Train in which he starred alongside Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, Hema Malini, Parveen Babi and Neetu Singh.