Randhir Kapoor (born 15 February 1947 in India) is a Bollywood actor of yesteryear. His nickname is Daboo.
Randhir Kapoor is the eldest son of Raj Kapoor and his wife Krishna Kapoor. He is a fourth generation Kapoor and comes from a distinguished family who have been part of the industry for many years. His great-grandfather was Dewan Basheswarnath Kapoor, his grandfather was Prithviraj Kapoor, his paternal uncles are Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor. His brothers are Rishi Kapoor and Rajiv Kapoor. His wife is actress Babita Kapoor and his daughters are current stars Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor.
Randhir Kapoor made his acting and directorial debut with "Kal Aaj Aur Kal"(1971) which also starred his wife, father and grandfather. The film was produced under the R.K banner and was an average success. After his debut, he scored with two successful movies, the first with Jaya Bachchan in the film "Jawani Diwani" (1972) which also included the hit song "Jaane Jaan". This movie was one of the biggest hits of that year and was applauded because of the music and performances.
The other success, also released in the same year, was in "Raampur Ka Lakshman", with Shatrughan Sinha and Rekha, and directed by Manmohan Desai, with music by the legendary R.D. Burman.Except for "Jawani Diwani", which was a success to a major extent because its music by the extremely talented Rahul Dev Burman at the peak of his creative form, Randhir Kapoor never gave a single successful movie in which he was the leading man.
All his hits were with other major stars, and in which Randhir Kapoor himself was the secondary lead.He went on to appear in other hit films: "Chacha Bhatija" (1977), "Kasme Vaade" (1978) and "Pukar" (1983). After the 1984 film "Khazana" he quit acting in films for 15 years and took to producing and directing.
He returned to acting with the film "Mother" in 1999. After another break he appeared in the film "Armaan" (2003). Since then he has not acted in films.Randhir Kapoor has also directed films post "Kal Aaj Aur Kal". He directed "Dharam Karam" (1975), which was also a flop, and the hit film "Henna" (1991). The film was at first directed by Raj Kapoor but he died during the production of the film.
He also produced "Ram Teri Ganga Maili" (1985) which for a short while revived the career of his brother, Rajiv. The film went on to do well and it also won the Filmfare Best Movie Award.
On 13 May, 2007 he made an appearance on the television chat show "Koffee with Karan" where his brothers and sister Rima as well as his sister-in-law Neetu Singh appeared.Randhir and Babita were college sweethearts but their marriage was not a success. Babita was active in the movie industry until the time of her wedding. The Kapoor family tradition mandated her withdrawal from film upon marriage.
After some time, they separated and Babita took their daughters with her. They did not get back together, and lived separately. Despite the Kapoor family tradition, Babita encouraged her daughters to become film stars and to indulge in controversial western costumes (which were thought to be scandalous in prior years).