Shashi Kapoor and Johnny Hallyday: Two megastars in different worlds

Johnny Hallyday

Shashi Kapoor, one of Bollywood’s best-loved stars and easily the one best known internationally from that era, has died at age 79. He died in Mumbai on Monday after a prolonged 
kidney ailment.
Kapoor stood out from a formidable galaxy of big-name stars in the 70s and 80s – his brothers Raj and Shammi, Dilip Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bhachchan and Vinod Khanna – with his sophisticated, suave manner and charm. He was blessed enough to hail from the celebrated Indian film-making dynasty of Prithviraj Kapoor.
But he was never content to pose on this golden pedestal and worked hard. His first leading role was in the award-winning 1961 film Dharmputra, directed by Yash Chopra, which dealt with the painful theme of partition.
This was followed by a number of hits in the 1970s, including Kabhi Kabhie (1976) and Thrishna (1979). In both, his co-star was Bollywood giant Amitabh Bhachchan.
He married his English actress-wife Jennifer Kapoor (nee Kendal) in 1958. His fluent English made him a good choice for the English-language films of Merchant Ivory set in India. He and his wife starred in Bombay Talkie (1970) and the 1982 Merchant Ivory classic Heat and Dust, based on Ruth Prawyer Jhabwala’s novel about a romance between an Indian prince and an Englishwoman. In 1972, he was chosen by Conrad Rooks for the film version of Herman Hesse’s novel Siddhartha, in which Kapoor gives a nuanced performance as an intellectually troubled young man in search of wisdom and the meaning of life.
After Jennifer died in the mid-1980s from cancer, Kapoor acted much less but appeared in such films as In Custody by Ismail Merchant in 1993, and he acted with Claire Bloom in the 1987 film “Sammy and Rosie Get Laid.” In all, Sashi Kapoor acted in more than 100 films.

"This was followed by a number of hits in the 1970s, including Kabhi Kabhie (1976) and Thrishna (1979). In both, his co-star was Bollywood giant Amitabh Bhachchan"

Johnny Hallyday

Johnny Hallyday, France’s biggest rock star for more than 50 years, has died at age 74.
Born Jean-Philippe Smet in Paris, Hallyday was raised by an aunt after his Belgian parents separated. He borrowed the name Hallyday from his niece’s American husband Lee Halliday, misspelling it in the process.
He was better known outside France for his movie performances, including Westerns. As a singer, he was little known internationally but was sensationally successful in France, with more than 1000 songs, and selling more than 110 million records. His last free concert in 2009 was attended by almost one million fans.
Despite his success, Hallyday said his tragedy was to be born in France. The sentimental French chanson and  American-inspired rock are worlds apart. As he put it: “French lyrics are too unwieldy for rock. Our words are too long. You just can’t sing rock and roll in French… I’m only an interpreter. I’ve only ever written a few songs in my life, and I needed a lot of cocaine to do that. But I can put across to an audience some of my feelings. I cannot live any other way.”

Shashi Kapoor

He was being honest. More than a fourth of his recordings were French adaptations of English-language songs, and he faithfully copied almost every major rock star from the 1960s on, from Elvis Presley to the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix to Bon Jovi and Prince. But his French fans loved it. His records went gold 40 times and platinum 22 times in France. Though he was politically conservative (a friend of presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkoszy), he cut across social and political barriers easily, appealing equally to farmers, workers and left-wing intellectuals, who called him the French Mayakovsky.

"Hallyday lived a rock celebrity’s life to the hilt, marrying four times. His first wife was pop singer Sylvie Vartan, his last Laeticia Boudou, a model"

Hallyday lived a rock celebrity’s life to the hilt, marrying four times. His first wife was pop singer Sylvie Vartan, his last Laeticia Boudou, a model. In between, he had a son with actress Nathalie Baye and was featured in more Paris Match covers than any other Frenchman. A keen motorcyclist, he loved riding Harley Davidsons through American deserts and highways.
His breakthrough role in films came in 1985 when Goddard cast him in his classic ‘The Detective’ and he won an award  in 2003 for his role in Patrice Leconte’s ‘ L’Homme du Train.’ In 1963, he acted in the Western ‘From Where Do you Come, Johnny?’ with Sylvie Vartan. His temperament and physique made him a natural for action films. In the 1988 film ‘Triangle of Fire,’ he acts as a 
French mercenary.