Meet Shashi Kapoor’s Kids: Karan Kapoor, Kunal Kapoor, and Sanjana Kapoor

Shashi Kapoor remains one of the most celebrated names in Indian cinema, an actor and producer whose career spanned five decades and bridged Bollywood and international productions.

Born Balbir Raj Prithviraj Kapoor on March 18, 1938, in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bengal Presidency, British India, Shashi Kapoor was the youngest son of theatre legend Prithviraj Kapoor and his wife, Ramsarni “Rama” Mehra Kapoor.

He belonged to the Punjabi Khatri community and was raised in a Hindu household. His elder brothers, Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor, both went on to become towering names in Hindi cinema, while his sister, Urmila Sial Kapoor, stayed away from the film industry, as did Devi Kapoor and Nandi Kapoor.

He attended Don Bosco High School in Matunga, Mumbai, though he left formal education behind early to pursue acting, having already been performing on stage with his father’s Prithvi Theatres from the age of four.

Shashi Kapoor died on December 4, 2017, in Mumbai at age 79, which would make him 88 years old today. He stood 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) tall. In 1958, he married English theatre and film actress Jennifer Kendal, whom he had met two years earlier while both were performing with their respective theatre companies in Calcutta.

Their union crossed cultural lines and drew resistance from both families, but it held for 26 years until Jennifer’s death from cancer in 1984. Shashi Kapoor was not publicly linked to any other romantic relationship before or after his marriage, and Jennifer Kendal remained his only known partner throughout his life.

Together, the couple had three children: Kunal, Karan, and Sanjana. At the time of his death, Shashi Kapoor’s net worth was estimated between $60 million and $80 million, built from his decades-long acting career, his production house Film Valas, and his co-founding of Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai.

Here is a closer look at each of his three children and who they are to him.

Kunal Kapoor

Kunal Kapoor is Jennifer Kendal’s eldest child and firstborn son, born on June 26, 1959, in Bombay (now Mumbai).

He is an actor, film producer, director, and advertisement filmmaker who founded the production company Adfilm-Valas and built a career largely behind the camera, directing commercials after an early stint in front of the camera.

As Shashi Kapoor’s first child with Jennifer Kendal, Kunal carries forward the Kapoor family’s theatrical and cinematic legacy from a different angle than his father, focused more on advertising and production than mainstream acting. He was previously married to Sheena Sippy, daughter of filmmaker Ramesh Sippy, and the couple share two children, including Zahan Kapoor, who has stepped into acting himself.

Karan Kapoor

Karan Kapoor is Shashi Kapoor’s second child and younger son, born on January 18, 1962, in Mumbai. He began his career as a model and actor, gaining recognition through the Bombay Dyeing advertising campaign before appearing in Bollywood films such as Sultanat (1986) and Loha (1987).

He later moved to London and shifted his career toward photography, going on to win international recognition, including an International Photography Award in 2009. As Shashi Kapoor’s middle child, Karan represents the branch of the family that has stepped furthest from mainstream Hindi cinema, choosing a life abroad centred on visual storytelling through the camera lens.

He stands 6 feet tall (1.83 m) and was married to English fashion executive Lorna Kapoor, though the two have since divorced. The couple share two children, a son named Zak Kapoor and a daughter named Aliya Kapoor.

Sanjana Kapoor

Sanjana Kapoor is Shashi Kapoor’s youngest child and only daughter, born on November 27, 1967, in Mumbai. She began her acting career in her father’s 1981 film 36 Chowringhee Lane, which also starred her mother, Jennifer Kendal, and went on to appear in Utsav (1984), Hero Hiralal (1988), and Salaam Bombay! (1988) before stepping away from acting.

As Shashi Kapoor’s daughter, Sanjana took on perhaps the most direct extension of the family’s theatrical roots, managing Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, the very institution her father and grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor helped build, from 1993 until 2012.

She later founded her own theatre initiative, Junoon, and was honoured with France’s Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2020 for her contribution to theatre.

Sanjana was first married to director Aditya Bhattacharya, a union that ended in divorce, before marrying tiger conservationist and writer Valmik Thapar, who passed away in 2025. She shares one son, Hamir Thapar, born in 2002, from her marriage to Valmik.

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