Born as an ordinary child in Amritsar on 7th April 1942, Ravi Kapoor as Jeetendra was originally named joined his family business of supplying imitation jewellery to the film industry. His friend and the megastar Vinod Khanna attended the same school in Girgaum, Mumbai. It was when he was supplying jewellery to the famous V.Shantaram, young Ravi was given as opportunity as Sandhya’s character double in the movie Navrang from the year 1959. This event marked the birth of the superstar we know today as Jeetendra respectfully called as Jeetu Ji.
Jeetendra’s acting career spanned almost 3 decades, the 1960’s to the 1990s. The actor had seen a lot of struggles between the years 1960-66 trying to establish himself in the industry. Jeetendra bagged his first film Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne directed by V.Shantaram in the year 1964. But young Ravi Kapoor turned into the Superstar Jeetendra with the film Farz from the year 1967. The picturization of the dance number, “Mast baharon Ka Main Aashiq” from Farz had Jeetendra dressed in a white T-shirt and shoes which he had bought from a retail store. This attire then became his trademark. After Farz, Jeetendra had also featured in more dance numbers for films like Caravan and Humjoli. Superhits songs like, “Dhal Gaya Din Ho Gayi Shaam” and “Chadti Jawani Meri Chaal Mastani” got him the nickname, ’Jumping Jack of Bollywood.’
Jeetuji, in his long career, acted in nearly 200 films. He was often paired with the superstar actresses Sridevi and Jaya Prada for the remake of Telugu films under the direction of Ram Rao Tatineni, K.Raghavendra Rao. Some of the remakes were Sanjog, Aulad, Majaal, Mawaali, Himmatwala, Jani Dushman and Tohfa. Apart from these actions and dancing filled remakes, Jeetendra also acted in films by the legendary writer/lyricist Gulzar Sahab. Their films together which included Parichay, Kinara and Khushboo had some beautifully written songs like “O Majhi Re”, “Musafir Hoon Yaaro” and “Naam Gum Jaayega” which were composed by maestro’s like Kishore Kumar Ji and Rahul Dev Burman. You can listen to your favourite Jeetendra songs on Saregama Carvaan Hindi. It is a premium looking digital audio player with preloaded 5000 evergreen old Hindi songs. Saregama Carvaan also comes in a wide range of variants which include Carvaan Hindi, Carvaan Punjabi, Carvaan Bengali, Carvaan Tamil and Carvaan Marathi.
With intense acting and his dancing moves, Jeetendra became the heartthrob of the nation. During the 80’s Jeetuji also worked with co-stars like Reena Roy, Neetu Singh, Hema Malini, Moushami Chatterjee and Rekha. Today, the superstar is a film producer and a chairman at Balaji Telefilms, Balaji Motion Pictures and ALT Entertainment. But for the masses, he will always be the charming hero who danced with great expressions and whose moves will always remain fresh.
Wishing the legend his 82nd Birthday, we remember his valuable contributions to Hindi Cinema.