Annu Kapoor

Annu Kapoor was born Anil Kapoor in Itwara, Bhopal, Bhopal State, on 20 February 1956, to Madanlal, a Punjabi father with roots in Peshawar and Karnal, a Ghoti Brahmin mother. His father owned a travelling Parsi theatre company which performed in cities and towns, and his mother was an Urdu teacher and a trained classical singer. His grandfather Kripa Ram Kapoor was a doctor in the British Army and his great grandfather Lala Ganga Ram Kapoor, a revolutionary who was executed during the Indian freedom struggle. Due to poor financial circumstances, he had to quit school following secondary education. With a salary of ₹ 40, his mother worked as a teacher. On his father's insistence, he joined his theatre company. Following a stint there, he joined National School of Drama in 1976, after his brother Ranjit Kapoor, who was already a student there insisted. After graduating from the National School of Drama and a brief stint with its repertory company, in 1981, he played a 70-year-old man in the play Ek Ruka Hua Faisla in Bombay (now Mumbai). Film director Shyam Benegal who saw Kapoor perform, sent him a letter of appreciation and signed him for his 1983 film, Mandi. Kapoor's sister Seema Kapoor was briefly married to actor Om Puri. His elder brother, Ranjit, is a director and screenwriter and Seema is a producer and actor. Kapoor's younger brother, Nikhil, is a writer and lyricist.