Shakti Kapoor & Anita Raj Movies Together List — 12 Films

The shape of the work

The 1980s account for 83% of everything they made together. The 1980s belonged to Jeene Nahi Doonga; the 2020s to Mere Husband Ki Biwi. Shakti Kapoor acted in every film; Anita Raj acted in all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Their first film together, Jeene Nahi Doonga (1984), was a direct clash with Amitabh Bachchan's Mard at the box office. The director, Rajkumar Kohli, paired them specifically because both were known for intense villainous roles — he wanted a double threat to counter Bachchan's mass appeal.
• In Mazloom (1986), Shakti Kapoor played a sadistic landlord while Anita Raj played his victim. The film's most talked-about scene — a 7-minute cat-and-mouse chase in a warehouse — was shot in one continuous take because Kapoor kept improvising threats, and Raj matched his intensity by refusing to break character even when he accidentally slapped her for real.
• Anita Raj once revealed in an interview that during the shoot of Satyamev Jayate (1987), Shakti Kapoor would bring her homemade chai from his house every morning because she complained about the set's bad coffee. They stayed in touch for decades — she was one of the first people he called when he decided to launch his daughter Shraddha Kapoor in the industry.
• Their 1989 film Abhimanyu was the first Hindi movie to feature a female villain (Anita Raj) who physically overpowers the male hero in a fight sequence. That scene directly inspired the makers of the 1994 film Mohra to cast Raveena Tandon in a similar action-heavy negative role.
• Shakti Kapoor said about Anita Raj in a 2018 podcast: 'She was the only actress who could make me nervous on set. When she'd give me that angry look in a scene, I'd forget my lines. I told her, "You're scarier than all my villains combined."'
• Their last film together, Anari is Backk (2023), happened only because Anita Raj's daughter was a huge fan of Shakti Kapoor's comedy roles. Anita personally called Kapoor and asked him to do a cameo — he agreed without even reading the script. They shot their scene in one afternoon, 39 years after their first film.