Award winning Indian Film actor and film producer, Shashi Kapoor has his 74th Birthday today.

Born as Balbir Raj Prithviraj Kapoor, on March 18, 1938 in Calcutta, he came to be known as Shashi Kapoor. He is a member of the Kapoor family, a film dynasty in India's Bollywood cinema. He is the younger brother of Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor, the son of Prithviraj Kapoor, the widower of Jennifer Kendal, and the father of Karan Kapoor, Kunal Kapoor, and Sanjana Kapoor. 

Shashi Kapoor started acting in films as a child in the early 1940s appearing in several mythological films. His best known performances were in Aag (1948) and Awaara (1951) where he played the younger version of the characters played by his older brother Raj Kapoor.

He made his debut as a leading man in the 1961 Yash Chopra film Dharmputra and went on to appear in 168 films.  He was a very popular debonair actor in Bollywood during the 1960s, 1970s and the mid 1980s. Shashi Kapoor formed a hit on screen pair with Rakhee, Sharmila Tagore, Zeenat Aman in the late sixties till the mid eighties. He is remembered for many hit Hindi films like Jab Jab Phool Khile, Kanyadaan, Pyar Ka Mausam, Ek Shriman Ek Shrimati , Haseena Maan Jayegi, Sharmeelee, Aa Gale Lag Jaa, Fakira, Phaansi, Chor Machaye Shor, Mukti, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Heeralal Pannalal, Junoon, Swayamvar and many such films, including ones he starred in with Pran like Chori Mera Kaam, Phaansi, Shankar Dada, Chakkar Pe Chakkar and with Amitabh Bachchan, such as Deewar, Namak Halaal.

He has also played leading roles in a number of English-speaking Indian films, including the very first Merchant Ivory production The Householder followed by such as Shakespeare-Wallah, Bombay Talkie, Heat and Dust, etc. 

In 2011, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.

Fridaymoviez wishes Shashi Kapoor a Very Happy Birthday!