Hailing from a film background, Shashi Kapoor started his career quite early as a child actor under the name Shashiraj where he played younger versions of his elder brother Raj Kapoor, Ashok Kumar and did four Hindi films between 1948 to 1954. He later played second fiddle to directors and was assistant director in films like Post Box 999 (1958), Guest House(1959), Shriman Satyawadi (1960) and Dulha Dulhan (1964).

He debuted as a protagonist in the 1961 film Dharmputra after which his popularity knew no bounds. His outstanding career consisted of 116 Hindi films which contained gems like Haseena Maan Jayegi (1968) and Ek Shriman Ek Shrimati (1969), Deewaar (1975), Do Aur Do Paanch (1980), Shaan (1980) and Silsila (1981), among others. His versatility also made him one of the first Indian actors to go international where he did English films like The Household and Shakespeare-Wala and even acted with Pierce Brosnan in The Deceivers (1988).

The year 1978 saw the inception of his own production company Film Valas where he churned out the critically acclaimed Junoon (1978), Kalyug (1981) and 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981). Shashi Kapoor has been the recipient of the Padma Bhushan Award (2011) and also the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (2015). He also won the National Film Award thrice in 1979, 1986 and 1994 respectively.