Mumbai: Actor, presenter and singer Annu Kapoor is amongst the Hindi film actors who are well capable of stealing the show if they are not in the lead.
Born February 20, 1956, Kapoor began his career as a stage actor in 1979 and got noticed in 1984’s Ek Ruka Hua Faisla, directed by Basu Chatterjee and written by elder brother Ranjeet.
He made his film debut with Mandi, (directed by Shyam Benegal) in 1983. His career has spanned more than 30 years, including Hindi cinema, television serials and game shows. A very few have heard the story of Annu Kapoor who used to narrate stories of all film stars during his show. Today we will let you know some unique stories about the actor’s life.
Annu’s mother was a Bengali and his father owned a travelling Parsi theatre company which performed in cities and towns, and his mother was a poet and trained classical singer. Due to which Annu’s family was also called Nautankiwala. His mother taught in a school at a salary of Rs 40.
Annu set up a tea stall for the financial help of his family. But that failed miserably, forcing him to sell churan’s notes and lottery tickets.
He also took admission in Delhi’s National School of Drama. In one of the plays, Annu played the role of a 70-year-old old man at the age of 23. Filmmaker Shyam Benegal had reached out to see this drama. He liked Annu’s performance very much and wrote a letter of praise to him and called him for meeting. Annu started her career with Shyam Benegal’s film Mandi.
Apart from films, Annu has hosted a number of television shows. Annu’s best remembered for hosting the singing show Close-Up Antakshari, produced by Zee TV.