Shakti Kapoor

Biography

Shakti Kapoor (born Sunil Kapoor; 3 September 1952) is an Indian actor and comedian who appears in Bollywood films. Known for his villainous and comic roles in Hindi films, he has featured in over 600 films.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Kapoor teamed up with actors Asrani and Kader Khan as the comical or evil team in over 100 films. He was a contestant in the Indian reality show Bigg Boss in 2011.

Kapoor was born in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father ran a clothes shop in Connaught Place, New Delhi. After a long struggle in Bollywood, Kapoor was spotted by Sunil Dutt while he was making Rocky launch his son Sanjay Dutt.

He was then cast as the antagonist in the movie. But Dutt felt that his name "Sunil Kapoor" wouldn't do justice to his villainous stint and hence, "Shakti Kapoor" was born.

Kapoor is married to Shivangi Kapoor (elder sister of actresses Padmini Kolhapure and Tejaswini Kolhapure) and has two children, a son Siddhanth Kapoor, and a daughter Shraddha Kapoor. He resides in Juhu, Mumbai.

As a struggler in Bollywood, initially, Shakti Kapoor did many inconsequential roles in movies, all the while looking for a suitable role as a leading man. He started his Bollywood journey with the movie Khel Khilari Ka (starring Dharmendra and Hema Malini) in 1977.

The years 1980–81 established Shakti Kapoor as an actor in Bollywood with two of his movies, where he was a villain – Qurbani and Rocky. In 1983, Kapoor had roles in Himmatwala and the Subhash Ghai-directed movie Hero. Kapoor played villain roles in both these movies.

In the 1990s, he often diversified to positive comic roles and performed them with equal finesse in movies like Raja Babu. He has been nominated for the Filmfare Award in the Best Comedian category and won once, for his performance as Nandu in David Dhawan's film, Raja Babu.

Some of his comic roles have been as Inspector Bhinde in Insaaf, Prasad in Baap Numbri Beta Dus Numbri, Crime Master Gogo in Andaz Apna Apna, Tohfa, Batuknath in ChaalBaaz and as Goonga in Bol Radha Bol.