Jeetendra

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Jeetendra aka Jeetender (born April 7, 1942) is a popular Indian actor.

Born Ravi Kapoor in Mumbai, India, he started in Bollywood in the late 1950s when filmmaker V. Shantaram gave him a chance as Sandhya's double in Navrang (1959), but got his first big break when Shantaram cast him as hero in Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne (1964). Since then, he has appeared in almost 200 films.

Jeetendra came into the spotlight in 1967 with Ravikant Nagaich's Farz, which went on to become a golden jubilee success. The tee shirt and white shoes he picked up from a retail store for the "Mast Baharon Ka Main Aashiq" number in Farz (sung by Mohammed Rafi) became his trademark. His vigorous dancing in films like Farz, Humjoli (1970), and Caravan (1971) won him the epithet of the Jumping Jack. His films consistently achieved commercial success, even though the critics panned a lot of them. Jeetendra was a non actor who knew the market pulse well. He was able to star in lot of movies made in south many of which were made for front benchers and did have commercial success.

In the 1980s, Jeetendra was frequently paired up with Sridevi or Jayapradha for remakes of South Indian potboilers courtesy of K. Bapayya and K. Raghavendra Rao; some of these films were produced by Padmalaya Productions. Featuring elaborate sequences with colorful clay pots, dozens of extras, electronic music by Bappi Lahiri, and lyrics by Indeewar that were full of double entendres, movies like Justice Chaudhry (1982), Mawaali (1983), Himmatwala (1983), and Tohfa (1984) were huge hits despite low critical acclaim.

Jeetendra is married to Shobha Kapoor, and has a son Tusshar Kapoor, who is also an actor, and a daughter, Ekta Kapoor, a film producer who runs Balaji Telefilms. They make popular TV serials in Hindi, Tamil, and other languages. They have also produced five Bollywood films, two of which have Tusshar in the leading role. Jeetendra made a brief appearance in one of his daughter's produced films Kucch To Hai (2002) where he appeared alongside his son Tusshar.

He recently made an appearance in a popular TV serial Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi as an old man. He was a judge of Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, an Indian dance competition on Sony Entertainment Television.

[edit] Awards, honours and recognitions

Jeetendra never won an award, except for Lifetime Achievement Awards because of the tough competion in Bollywood during his era.

1998 - Guest of Honour Award at the 18th Ujala Cinema Express Awards [1]
2000 - Lifetime Achievement Award in film personalities [2]
2002 - Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award
2002 - Lifetime Achievement Award at the Zee Gold Bollywood Movie Awards in New York. [3]
2004 - "Legend of Indian Cinema" Award at Atlantic City (United States). [4]
2007 - Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award [5]