Page 7 - Seniorstoday November 2022 Issue

were disreputable-- and travel to Bombay Pushto. The guard also advised him kindly
(now Mumbai), he was the father of three
children, the oldest being Raj Kapoor.
Prthiviraj Kapoor and his sons
The beginnings of that magnificent career
were in 1928, when the 21-year-old got off
the Frontier Mail that had carried him from
Peshawar to Mumbai. He had a suitcase in
one hand and his lucky hockey stick in the
other. He hailed a Victoria to the Gateway
of India, looked at the sea, then raising his
face to the skies said, “Mr God, if you don’t
make me an actor and a star here, I will
swim the seven seas and go to Hollywood.”
Those were the days when Mumbai was
truly the city of dreams-- though the gates
of a fledgling show business did not open
for everybody, they did not rudely slam on
the face of an outsider either, especially not
one as handsome as Prithviraj Kapoor.
He made his way to Ardeshir Irani’s
Imperial Studio, where the Pathan guard
let him in, because he spoke his language,
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #41 | NOVEMBER 2022
to go home, the movie industry was not a
nice place, but giving up was not an option.
Then there is the saying about fortune
favouring the brave. Which is how on
his first day in Bombay (now Mumbai),
the young man found himself in the line
of extras, who were picked by production
assistants for the day’s shoot for a daily
wage of Rs 2.50. On the third day, the main
actor of the under-production Cinema
Girl played truant, the furious director
asked the leading lady Ermeline to select
a hero from among the hopefuls who had
congregated that day, and the tall Greek
God was just right to be a hero.
After getting that lucky break, he did
several films, including India’s first talkie
Alam Ara (1931). The transition from
silent films to talkies was difficult for most
actors who had weak voices. Because of
his theatre training, Prithviraj Kapoor had
a strong voice and fine diction, so had no
problem switching to talkies.
Despite the success of his films, he was
restless for more realistic roles over the
bombastic costume dramas popular then,
and he found what he was looking for in the
Grant Anderson Theatre Company, with
the English actor-manager, who came to
India and wanted to work with local actors.
When the Company reached Calcutta (now
Kolkata) in 1932, it shut down. For a star
actor like Prithviraj, there was no dearth
of opportunities. He was snapped up by
New Theatres and acted in films like Seeta,
President and Vidyapati, now considered
classics.
After seven years in Calcutta, the family,
with the addition of more children, Urmila,
Shammi and Shashi returned to Bombay.
In those days, stars worked with studios on
a salary; he was the first to break out of the
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