Agencies/Mumbai


Industrialist Anil Ambani and actor Rishi Kapoor help carry the body of Bollywood actor Shammi Kapoor as they head to a crematorium in Mumbai yesterday
Bollywood stars turned out in force yesterday to pay their respects to Shammi Kapoor, the heartthrob actor of the 1950s and 1960s who died at the weekend.
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, a family friend, helped carry Kapoor’s flower-covered body from his home in the upmarket Malabar Hill area of south Mumbai to a waiting ambulance for the short trip to a nearby crematorium.
Also in attendance were Aamir Khan and Priyanka Chopra, two of the film industry’s leading lights, as well as top politicians and other prominent figures, including industrialist Anil Ambani.
The last rites were performed by Shammi’s son, Aditya Raj, who was wearing his father’s beads around his neck.
Shammi’s younger brother, Shashi, who is also in frail health, was among the mourners.
The Kapoors are Bollywood’s foremost acting dynasty. Four generations of the family have acted, produced or directed in Bollywood from brothers Raj, Shammi and Shashi’s father Prithviraj to Raj’s son’s Randhir and Rishi.
Randhir’s daughter Kareena is now an established A-lister while Rishi’s son Ranbir is one of the industry’s top new male leads.
Shammi Kapoor died on Sunday morning at the Breach Candy Hospital in south Mumbai after suffering renal failure. He was 79 and had been in poor health for a number of years.
The actor shot to fame in romantic hits such as Tumsa Nahin Dekha (957), Dil Deke Dekho (1959) and Junglee (1961).
His energetic dancing style, which transformed Bollywood’s innocent song and dance routines into something more raunchy, was often compared to the US singer Elvis Presley, earning him the tag of a “rebel.”
He later became an avid promoter of the Internet and was the founder-chairman of the Internet Users Community of India.
Veteran filmmaker Yash Chopra said there will never be anyone who can come even close to the 79-year-old actor.