Biography of Prithviraj Kapoor

(November 3, 1906 - May 29, 1972)

Prithviraj Kapoor was born in 1906 in Peshawar. The son of a police officer, he decided to join films and travelled to Bombay. The very handsome Prithviraj got the opportunity to play the leading role in the silent film 'Cinema Girl' within days of coming to Bombay. But the film turned out to be a failure and Prithviraj was relegated to doing minor roles to eke out a living.

His major breakthrough came in the film ‘Alam Ara’, India's first sound film. Then he started doing strong supporting roles in the New Theatres' movies like 'Dushman', 'Sapera' and President'. His impressive physique and personality fetched him his most famous roles in 'Vidyapati and ‘Sikander'. The 1960 film ‘Mughal-e-Azam', represented the acme of Frithviraj's career and Prithviraj gave a powerful performance as Emperor Akbar. The films ‘Dahei' and ‘Awara' were amongst his most memorable films. In 1944, he launched his theatre company Prithvi Theatres. Prithviraj Kapoor died in 1972.