Personal Life
As was customary in that era, Prithviraj married at a young age. At age 17, Prithviraj married the 14-year-old Ramsarni Mehra, in a match that was arranged by their families, in 1923. Their eldest child, Raj Kapoor, was born in December 1924. By the time Prithviraj moved to Bombay in 1928, the couple were the parents of three children. In 1930, Ramsarni joined Prithviraj in Bombay. The following year, while she was pregnant for the fourth time, the couple suffered the tragic loss of two of their three children in the space of one week. One of their children, Devi, died of double pneumonia while the other child, Nandi, died of poisoning in a freak incident when he swallowed some rat-poison pills strewn in the garden.
Prithviraj Kapoor was a close friend of the late Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and considered his daughter Indira Gandhi as his niece.
Prithviraj had an athletic built, and was 6'2". His British friends at Edwards College nicknamed him 'Kappie', as he was the captain of the college's cricket team. He loved to play cricket and football, and was a keen athlete.
Prithviraj could speak fluent Hindko, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Pashto, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi and English.
The couple went on to have four children further. Sons, Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor, were to become famous actors and film-makers in their own right. They also had one daughter, Urmila Sial.
After his retirement, Prithviraj settled in Bombay, in a cottage called Prithvi Jhonpra near Juhu beach. The property was on lease, which was bought by Shashi Kapoor, and later converted into a small, experimental theatre, the Prithvi Theatre. Both Prithviraj and Ramsarni suffered from cancer in their declining years and died within a fortnight of each other. Prithviraj died on 29 May 1972 and was followed by his wife on 14 June.
Almost all of Prithviraj's students at Prithvi Theatre became famous under his fatherly guidance and love; namely, his sons Raj Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, actors Sajjan, Premnath, Rajendranath, Ravindra Kapoor, Kamal Kapoor, Zohra Saigal, Sudesh Kumar, Ramesh Saigal, Mohan Saigal, directors and producers L. V. Prasad, Ramanand Sagar, playback singer Mohammed Rafi, Music Directors Ram Ganguly, Sardar Mullick (Anu Mullick's father), Shankar-Jaikishen, Ramlal, Dance Directors Satyanaryan, Suresh Bhatt and writer Prayag Raaj.
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Famous quotes related to personal life:
“The dialectic between change and continuity is a painful but deeply instructive one, in personal life as in the life of a people. To ‘see the light’ too often has meant rejecting the treasures found in darkness.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)