Mumbai, August 14
Actor Shammi Kapoor, who ruled the film industry in the 1950s and 1960s with his flamboyant, charismatic personality, is no more. He was 79. A prominent member of the Kapoor clan and the brother of Raj Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor, the actor died of kidney failure at the Breach Candy Hospital at 5.15 am today, his son Aditya Raj Kapoor said.

“He was a very happy and lively person. He was unwell for sometime... he was on dialysis. He died of kidney failure,” Aditya said.

His funeral will take place tomorrow in south Mumbai, after his grandson returns from the US.

“The funeral will take place tomorrow around 9 am at the Ban Ganga funeral ground,” Aditya said.

Family members, friends and several Bollywood personalities, including Amitabh Bachchan and industrialist Anil Ambani, visited Kapoor's residence Blue Heaven at Malabar Hill after learning of his demise.

Shammi, whose real name was Shamsher Raj Kapoor, was born on October 21, 1931, to Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsarni Mehra. With the demise of Shammi, only Shashi is left of the famous brother trio.

Shammi is survived by his wife Neela Devi, son Aditya Raj and daughter Kanchan Desai. Shammi entered the film industry as a junior artiste in 1948 and debuted as an actor in 1953 with film “Jeevan Jyoti”.

He carved a niche for himself with his rock ‘n’ roll dancing style in films like Nasir Hussain's “Tumsa Nahin Dekha” and “Dil Deke Dekho”. But it was the 1961 film “Junglee”, directed by Subodh Mukherjee, which gave him the image of “the yahoo yuppie”.

The Nasir-Shammi combination struck gold at the box-office with murder mystery “Teesri Manzil”, one of the unforgettable films in the actor's career.

Shammi never really bid adieu to the big screen, appearing in films time and again. He starred with Shah Rukh Khan in “Chamatkar” (1992) and played Salman Khan's grandfather in “Janam Samjha Karo” (1999).

His latest onscreen stint was a cameo in grand nephew Ranbir Kapoor's yet-to-be-released film “Rockstar”, directed by Imtiaz Ali.

A great computer buff, Shammi was one of the earliest stars from Bollywood to join micro-blogging website Twitter.

His last tweet was to Priyanka Chopra in November last year.

President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a host of leaders of different political parties also condoled the death of the veteran actor and said the film industry had "lost a creative talent" in his demise.

“Shri Kapoor was one of the veteran actors, who adorned Hindi cinema. He delighted Hindi cinema fans with his vivacious acting. He shall always be remembered by a generation of film watchers,” Patil said.

The Prime Minister described Kapoor as an accomplished artiste who entertained millions of fans.

“I am sad to learn of Shammi Kapoor's demise. He was an accomplished actor who entertained millions and millions of fans in India and abroad. I share his family's grief,” Singh said in his message.

Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan said Kapoor would remain a hero for his generation. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said the industry had lost an “iconic figure” in the actor's death.

Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said, “Shammi Kapoor was a superstar of our era. His dance style was a rage in our times. He was a fatherly figure for the film industry. This is a big loss to the film fraternity.” — PTI