What was the nickname given by Raj Kapoor to Shashi Kapoor during the shooting of the film Satyam Shivam Sundaram?

 There was a strange reason behind to the question why Raj Kapoor used to call his younger brother Shashi Kapoor ‘Taxi'.

It was the time when Raj Kapoor had planned to make one of his iconic and most talked about film Satyam Shivam Sundaram, which told the difference between physical love and spiritual love.

When many actors were queueing up to perform the lead role, Raj Kapoor thought that only Shashi Kapoor is appropriate for the role of a male protogonist. But Shashi Kapoor was a demanding actor of those days, all the top directors wanted to cast him in their films and Shashi was committed with 4 to 5 filmmakers.

Also Raj Kapoor wanted dates in a bunch and with a condition that when Shashi would work for Satyam Shivam Sundaram he would not work for any other film during the shooting of this film.

So Shashi had to work round the clock, he would do 4–5 shifts a day and sleep in a car, his own or in a hired taxi .

To Raj Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor always looked like “running away in taxi” and so he gave him the nickname ‘taxi'.

Raj, out of frustration that his younger brother is not having enough time for his film Satyam Shivam Sundaram, he called him as “Taxi”.

Raj Kapoor would tell Shashi Kapoor that, “ You people aren't artists. You are all taxis. Someone puts your meter down, you go there. Then someone else puts your meter down and you go there.”

For one more reason Shashi got this nicknane that is, he was known to pick up or drop any of his co-actors in his car or taxi as he travelled regularly between places and shifts for shooting for his films.

What was the last movie of Shashi Kapoor?

 One of the iconic stars of Bollywood Shashi Kapoor for the last time appeared on the silver screen in the year 1998.

In 1998 Shashi Kapoor acted in two films one is Hindi film Ghar Bazaar and another one is English film Side Streets.

In Ghar Bazaar he made a special appearance. Sharmila Tagore, Shekar Suman were in the leading roles.

It got delayed in the release of Ghar Bazaar, it had its audio launch in 1986 but the film was released after 2 decades in 1998.

In the English film Side Streets, Shashi Kapoor did the leading role of Vikram Raj alongside Valeria Golino, Shabana Azmi and others. It was written and directed by Tony Gerber and it was co- produced by Ismail Merchant and others.

The film was released on 6th September 1998 at the Venice Film Festival. It was theatricaly released in the UK on 25th April, 1999.

So Ghar Bazaar had become Shashi Kapoor's final Hindi film and Side Streets had become his final English film.

Shashi Kapoor had acted in over 150 films since his first film as a leading actor in the 1961s Yash Chopra’s film Dharmaputra. As a child artist he faced the camera in 1948 in Raj Kapoor's film Aag. In English he did around 12 films.

Some of his popular Hindi films are Sharmilee, Roti Kapda Aur Makhan, Deewar, Trishul, Kranti, Namak Halal and many more. He collaborated with Amitabh Bachchan in several films and most of their films were box office hits.

Shashi Kapoor had passed away on 4th December, 2017 at the age of 79. He is the receipient of Dada Saheb Phalke Award, Padma Bhushan, 3 National Film Awards and 2 Filmfare Awards.