Jeetendra was born on 7th April, 1942 in Amritsar, Punjab and his name was Ravi Kapoor. He changed his name to Jeetendra when he started working in Bollywood. He made his debut with V. Shantaram in the late 1950s .
His family was involved in the business of imitation jewelry. While supplying imitation jewelry to the film maker V. Shantaram, Jeetendra was given a role opposite Sandhya in the movie “Navrang” (1959). But he got his big break when V. Shantaram gave him the role of the hero in the movie “Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne” (1964). Ever since then, Jeetendra acted in more than 200 movies.
He came to the limelight in 1967 with the movie “Farz” directed by Ravikant Nagaich because the movie became a golden jubilee hit. The white shoes and the T-shirt he wore in the hit song ”Mast Baharon Ka Main Aashiq” from the movie ”Farz” turned out to be his trademark. Vigorous dancing style of Jeetendra in movies such as “Farz” also became his mark. His dynamic dancing styles in the movies such as Humjoli (1970), as well as Caravan (1971) gave the name of “Jumping Jack”. Jeetendra’s movies constantly achieved a lot of success.
During the early 1970s when superstar Rajesh Khanna used to rule in the Hindi film industry, position of Jeetendra was for the time being submerged. However, with the movie Bidaai with Leena Chandavarkar, Jeetendra hit back again. Then with the intention to win the hearts of classes and masses, he begun doing bespectacled dramatics in the movies “Kinara”, “Khushboo” and ”Parichay’. Simultaneously, Jeetendra also extended his movements to win the hearts of the family audiences in the movies such as Maang Bharo Sajna, Ek Hi Bhool and Asha.
During the 80s, he was often paired up with the southern actress Jayaprada or Sridevi in the remakes of the South Indian hit movies directed by K. Raghavendra Rao and K. Bapayya; several of these movies were produced by the famous Padmalaya Productions. The main attractions of these movies were complicated sequences, colorful clay pots used in songs, dozens of extra artistes, music composed by Bappi Lahiri, and Indeewar’s lyrics, films such as Tohfa (1984), “Justice Chaudhry” (1982), Himmatwala (1983) and Mawaali (1983), were big hits.
He married Shobha Kapoor, and has a daughter Ekta Kapoor who runs Balaji Telefims and a son Tusshar Kapoor who is also an actor. Balaji Telefims produced huge numbers of popular television serials in Hindi, and other regional languages. Balaji Telefims also produced few Hindi movies. Jeetendra also appeared in one of the movies “Kucch To Hai” (2002).
Jeetendra also appeared in the famous TV series “Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi”. Jeetendra also appeared as a judge in the reality show “Jhalak Dikhla Jaa”. He never won an award, apart from the “Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award”.
