Shashi Kapoor to Receive Dadasaheb Phalke Award

Bollywood star Shashi Kapoor, a member of the Hindi film royalty, is to get the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2014, the government’s honor for contributing to the growth and development of Indian cinema.

Kapoor would be the third member of his family to receive the award after his brother Raj and father, Prithivraj. He not only toplined such Bollywood hits as “Deewar,” “Satyam Shivam Sundaram” and “Sharmilee” but also western films like “Shakespeare-Wallah,” in which he starred with his wife, Jennifer Kendall, for Ivory-Merchant. Other Ivory-Merchant titles included “The Householder,” “Bombay Talkie” and “Heat and Dust.”

But Kapoor was frequently paired with Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan in memorable films like “Deewar,” “Silsila” and “Namak Halal” in the ’70s.

Shashi Kapoor also produced arty non-Bollywood films such as “36 Chowringhee Lane,” “Junoon” and “Kalyug.”

He started as a child actor in 1945 with “Tadbir” later appearing as the younger version of his brother Raj in “Aag” and “Awaara.” The 77-year-old was in the hospital with a chest infection last year.

Other Indian actors tweeted congratulations on hearing the news. His nephew Rishi Kapoor tweeted, “Yessssssss! Shashi Kapoor to get the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke award for contribution to Indian Cinema. Well deserved uncle. God Bless. Third Padma Bhushan and third Phalke award in the family. Prithviraj Kapoor and Raj Kapoor being the other recipients.”

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