Legendary Bollywood producer went bankrupt after building empire from scraps, was sued by financiers while dealing with heart ailments

Indian Express

3 days ago

He was summoned from Pakistan to Mumbai by his cousin Prithviraj Kapoor; he assisted K Asif on Mughal-E-Azam and worked as a secretary to Geeta Bali. He debuted as a producer with a film starring Rajesh Khanna. But things fell apart some years later, when a major flop sent him spiralling into debt. He was too unwell to pay the money back, but was slapped with several legal cases. His son was forced to step up, which he did. The producer's name was Surinder Kapoor, and he was the father of Boney Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, and Sanjay Kapoor. Surinder Kapoor came to Mumbai after the Partition, and lived in distant relative Raj Kapoor's outhouse with his wife. The family then moved into a one-bedroom 'kholi' in Tilak Nagar, Mumbai.
In a recent interview with Nayandeep Rakshit, Surinder Kapoor granddaughter, Anshula, clarified that while she comes from privilege, her father's generation worked its way up from nothing. 'I should make one thing clear, I have grown up in privilege, but my father has worked to give me the privilege. His father, my grandfather, didn't come from the same socio-economic strata… Even Sonam didi and Arjun bhaiya, to a great extent, didn't see that privilege for eight or nine years of their life. That part is overlooked when they think about the Kapoor family,' Anshula said.
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Two years before his death in 2011, Surinder Kapoor reflected on his early years in the film business. He told Rediff, 'I came to Mumbai in 1950. I was 27 years old then. I am from Peshawar. When I told my cousin Prithviraj Kapoor that I wanted to come to Mumbai for a job, he asked me to come over. When I came to Mumbai, I didn't think I would join films. But Prithviraj was very nice. As soon as I came to Mumbai by Frontier Mail, he took me to K Asif and got me a job as an assistant director on the sets of Mughal-E-Azam. I had become good friends with Shammi Kapoor and Geeta Bali. It was she who helped me become a producer. I could have made my first production, Jab Se Tumhe Dekha (1963), with Madhubala. But I had told Geeta that if I ever make a film, it would be with her only. Geeta helped me get financiers. I got a good crew because of her. I cast Pradeep Kumar, who wasn't giving hits any more, and Geeta, who was on the verge of retirement. But my film did not do well. In fact, I could not give a single hit in my entire career but still, financiers and distributors put their money in my projects.'
In an interview with The Times of India in 2003, Boney Kapoor said that he never wanted to become a producer or filmmaker after seeing the toll the business took on his father. 'I didn't want to become a filmmaker: Although my father had pinned his hopes on Ek Shriman Ek Shrimati, the film did average business. Then, when the high-budget, Rajesh Khanna-starrer Shahzaada bombed at the box office, my father was tense for days. Around then, I decided to myself that I would have nothing to do with filmmaking.'
Read more – Mughal-E-Azam actor worked in over 500 films, but lived in a house without electricity, could never afford a car
In an interview with Nayandeep Rakshi, Boney Kapoor reflected on the humble beginnings of his family. 'We began our journey from an almost chawl-like situation. All four of us were born in Tilak Nagar, in one Kholi. Every floor had a single one-room-kitchen unit. There were three common toilets. My father was brought to Bombay by Prithviraj Kapoor. My grandfather handed over my father to Prithviraj ji because my father left about 10-12 jobs. Left, in the sense, he was thrown out because he was siding with and supporting the workers, fought for their causes. My parents lived in Raj Kapoor's outhouse, the room above the garage. That's where the driver would stay. Perhaps I was conceived there.' Recalling the moment he had to step up, he said, 'Around 1976, my father tool ill. We had a film on the floors, called Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan. Another calamity occurred. Our director died midway through the shoot. Fortunately, we got a director who was ready to complete the film. The film was released in 1978, and it flopped. My father was in debt, we were in debt. We were in a s**thole.'
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Opening up further about the financial setback that the family had been hit by, Boney Kapoor told News18, 'In those days, my father had a debt of Rs 22 lakh. There were several cases against him because he hadn't been able to repay financiers. The mission with Hum Paanch was to get debt-free. By then, that Rs 22 lakh debt had become Rs 36 lakh. The film made enough profit for me to pay off the debt, and I was left with Rs 1 lakh.'
Anil Kapoor was much younger at the time, but he realised that he couldn't just be a spectator as his family struggled. 'We came to know he has heart issues. In those days heart issues were a very big thing. That was kind of a turning point, I said I have to now start working and let my dad chill. I was pretty young, 17-18 years old,' Anil took up any job that he could in order to help out at home. 'I wouldn't call them odd-jobs because I loved doing them, like waking up the actors, picking them up, fetching them from the airport, dropping them to the location, looking after them, getting them right snacks and then the tea breaks. So, all these kind of odd-jobs I did.'
Boney Kapoor said that his early experiences taught him to face every challenge head-on. He has experienced several setbacks of his own, like when the film Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja bombed, or, more recently, when the big-budget film Maidaan failed to perform after several delays.