Hero

In a country where there are thousands of Hindu gods and goddesses, popular actors are venerated and worshiped by billions of fans. Bollywood heroes are larger than life.

*deceased

hindi heroes

malayalam heroes

tamil heroes

telugu heroes

Heros of the Past

Bolly Flashback: Rishi Kapoor (nickname Chintu), was a Hindi actor, producer, and director, born on September 4, 1952, in Mumbai.  Rishi is the second son of Hindi icon Raj Kapoor. He also has two actor brothers, Randhir and Rajiv, and is the uncle of Kareena and Karisma Kapoor.  He has been married to actress Neetu Singh for thirty-five years.  They have two children, popular actor Ranbir Kapoor, and a daughter, Riddhima.  Rishi made his debut as a child actor in his father’s film ‘Mera Naam Joker’ (1971). In his first film as an adult, ‘Bobby’ (1974), Rishi won a Filmfare Best Actor Award and became a heart-throb in the 1970s.  Since then he has appeared in over 160 films, being honored with a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.  Up until the year 2000, Rishi played the romantic lead, include twelve pictures with his wife, Neetu. After that, he began playing supporting roles.  Some of his better-known films are: ‘Kabhie Kabhie’ (1976), ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ (1977), ‘Karz’ (1980), ‘Prem Rog’ (1982), ‘Chandni’ (1989), ‘Deewana’ (1992), ‘Luck by Chance’ (2009), and ‘Agneepath’ (2012). Rishi’s two most recent films are positively reviewed: ‘102 Not Out’, playing a grumpy old man, and co-starring Amitabh Bachchan as his optimistic father; and, ‘Mulk’, a courtroom drama involving Rishi as Murad Ali Mohammed and his Muslim family accused of terrorism. Rishi died on April 30, 2020. in Mumbai after a long battle with cancer.

Bolly Flashback:  Vinod Khanna, Bollywood actor, and producer, was born on October 6, 1946, in Peshawar, British India (now Pakistan). He died of bladder cancer on April 27, 2017. Vinod started his career playing a villain in ‘Man Ka Meet’ in 1968. He is one of a handful of Bollywood actors who began as villains and graduated to hero roles. His first hero roles were ‘Hum Tum Aur Woh’ (1971), ‘Mere Apne’ (1971), and ‘Achanak’’ (1973). Altogether, Vinod has appeared in over 140 films during the course of his career. He was Salman Khan’s step-father in ‘Dabangg’ (2010), and Shah Rukh Khans’ father in ‘Dilwale’ (2015).  Some of his best movies were: ‘Haath Ki Safai’ (1974), ‘Shaque’ and ‘Hera Pheri’ (1976), ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikander’ (1978), and ‘Qurbani’ (1980). From 1982 to 1986, Vinod left the film industry and lived in commune in the US as a follower of Osho. In 1997, Vinod joined politics and was a member of the Lok Sabha for the Bharatiya Janata Party from Gurdaspur, Punjab.  He was the father of actors Rahul and Akshaye Khanna. He received a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 and a posthumous Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2017.