Shekhar Kapur

Shekhar Kulbhushan Kapur (born 6 December 1945) is an Indian filmmaker.

Kapur achieved further international prominence with the 1998 period film Elizabeth, a fictionalized account of the reign of English Queen Elizabeth I, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards. He then directed war drama film The Four Feathers (2002). In 2007, he directed Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the sequel to his 1998 film.

Shekhar Kapur was awarded Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, in 2025.

Early life and education Shekhar was born on 6 December 1945 in Lahore, Punjab, British India, in a Punjabi Hindu family to Kulbhushan Kapoor, a doctor with a flourishing practice, and his wife Sheel Kanta Kapoor.

Whilst travelling on a train from the newly created Pakistan to India, a massacre took place; Kapur's mother Sheel played dead and hid both him and his sister under her body. Reflecting on this, Kapur stated that the partition of India happened through "the blood of one people". ), he was discouraged from getting into films by his father. Kapur is the only son of his parents and he has three sisters. One of his sisters, Neelu, was the first wife of actor Navin Nischol, while another sister, Aruna, is the wife of actor Parikshit Sahni. His third and youngest sister is Sohaila Kapur.

Kapur attended Modern School of New Delhi. He studied economics at St. Stephen's College. At 22, he became a Chartered Accountant with the ICAEW in England, having studied accountancy at the behest of his parents. He then started his career working with a multinational oil company. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1970, and spent several years working as an accountant and management consultant.

Filmmaking career

In India

He turned director with the family drama Masoom (1983), starring Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and a young Jugal Hansraj and Urmila Matondkar. The plot followed the story of an illegitimate boy who struggles to find acceptance from his stepmother. He then directed the 1987 science-fiction film Mr. India, starring Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Amrish Puri in his most famous role as the villain Mogambo. Puri's most famous dialogue in this film "Mogambo Khush Hua" is still remembered. In 1994 he directed the critically acclaimed Bandit Queen and played a cameo in the film as a truck driver.

Kapur was infamous for abandoning several films in which he was originally the director. He was originally the director of the 1989 film Joshilaay, which starred Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Meenakshi Sheshadri before leaving the production halfway, and its producer Sibti Hassan Rizvi stepped in to complete the film. In 1992, he had shot some scenes for Barsaat, which was originally titled Champion and was going to be the debut film of Bobby Deol, but he left the production and was replaced by Rajkumar Santoshi. In 1995, he partly directed Dushmani, starring Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff and Manisha Koirala before its producer Bunty Soorma stepped in to complete the film.

Kapur was the executive producer of the film The Guru. He established an Indian film company with Ram Gopal Verma and Mani Ratnam, though the group has thus far produced only one film, Dil Se.. (1998), starring Shahrukh Khan and Manisha Koirala. Kapur executive-produced the Bollywood-themed musical Bombay Dreams by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which ran in London's the West End and on Broadway in New York City for 1 year.

In 2016, Kapur delivers an autobiographical film and documentary about Amma, well known as Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, called "The Science of Compassion".

International In 1998, he received international recognition for the second time after Bandit Queen, when he directed the Academy Award-winning period film Elizabeth, a fictional account of the reign of British Queen Elizabeth I nominated for seven Oscars. The 2007 sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, was nominated for two Oscars. He was accused of being anti-British by British tabloids for his inaccurate portrayal of the British Army in the 2002 movie The Four Feathers. He denied the accusations and stated that he was merely "anti-colonisation".

Other ventures Kapur started his career as an actor in the movie (1975) starring Prem Kishen and Trilok Kapoor and later in Toote Khilone, in Bollywood. He appeared in several Hindi television dramas, such as Udaan (Doordarshan), opposite Kavita Chaudhary, Upanyaas (Doordarshan) opposite Nisha Singh, and Masoom opposite Neena Gupta.

He served as judge on the reality TV series India's Got Talent, aired on Colors.

In an unusual role for him, Kapur provided the voice of Mohandas Gandhi in the Charkha Audiobooks title of The Story of My Experiments with Truth, alongside Nandita Das as narrator.

In 2013, Kapur hosted the TV show on ABP News. On the show, which aims to bring never-seen-before facets of Indian history, he was the narrator.

Comic book publishing

In 2006, Kapur formed Liquid Comics and Virgin Animation, an entertainment company focused on creating new stories and characters for a global audience. The Shakti titles of Kapur and Deepak Chopra's company debuted with Devi and The Sadhu. Devi is about "a fierce feminine warrior, stronger than the Gods themselves ... a champion of the heavens, and the protector of man", while The Sadhu "is about one man's choice between his spiritual oath and his human instinct." He first was married to Medha Gujral, niece of former Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral. They divorced in 1994. She died on 25 November 2014 at a hospital in New York City of liver failure following a second heart and first kidney transplant. Kapur later married actress Suchitra Krishnamoorthi in 1999. They have a daughter named Kaveri Kapur. The couple divorced in 2007.

In March 2020, Krishnamoorthi filed a case against Kapur over a property dispute concerning their daughter Kaveri. She claimed that the property rightfully belongs to their daughter, but has been rented to actor Kabir Bedi and his wife Parveen.

Filmography

+Directed features Year Title Distributor 1983 Masoom Bombino Video 1987 Mr. India Sujata Films 1994 Bandit Queen Kaleidoscope Entertainment/Content Flow Studios 1998 Elizabeth PolyGram Filmed Entertainment 2002 The Four Feathers Paramount Pictures / Buena Vista International 2007 Elizabeth: The Golden Age Universal Pictures 2022 What's Love Got to Do with It? StudioCanal UK

Awards and honours In 2000, he received Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India. In 2010, he served as one of the Jury Members in international competition at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. In 2020, Kapur became the president of the Film and Television Institute of India.

In 2023, Kapur served as the chairperson of the International competition Jury at the 54th International Film Festival of India held from 20 November to 28 November.

Award Year Category Nominated work Result Ref(s)BAFTA Awards 1999 Best Direction Elizabeth Outstanding British Film David di Donatello Awards 2008 Best European Film Elizabeth: The Golden Age Filmfare Awards1984 Best Film - CriticsMasoom Best Director 1995 Best Film - Critics Bandit Queen 1997 Best Director Bandit Queen 1999 Special Award Golden Globe Awards 1999 Best Director – Motion Picture Elizabeth Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists 2008 Best European Director Elizabeth: The Golden Age National Board of Review Awards 1998 Best Director Elizabeth National Film Awards 1996 Best Feature Film - Hindi Bandit Queen Valladolid International Film Festival 1994 Best Film Bandit Queen