Bollywood actor Shammi Kapoor dead

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MUMBAI, Aug 14 (AFP): Legendary Bollywood heart-throb Shammi Kapoor, whose energetic acting and dancing style heavily influenced modern-day Indian film stars, died on Sunday aged 79. "Shammi Kapoor ji passed away this morning at 5:15 am," Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan wrote on Twitter, using the Hindi honorific, saying Kapoor had brought "flamboyance and joie de vivre" to the screen. Nikhil Gangavane, a family friend who headed the official Shammi Kapoor fan club, said the actor had been admitted to the private Breach Candy Hospital in south Mumbai within the last week. "He was on a ventilator for three or four days. He was having some chest infection, which he had had for the last one or two years. He died of renal failure this morning," Gangavane told AFP. "He had been undergoing dialysis for the last six or seven years but developed complications." Kapoor's dance performances in romantic hits such as "Tumsa Nahin Dekha" (You're One of a Kind, 1957), "Dil Deke Dekho" (Give Your Heart and See, 1959) and "Junglee" (Wild, 1961) earned him comparisons with Elvis Presley. Key to his success was his avid interest in music. Kapoor personally selected the songs he would dance and mime to, mindful that they needed to fit his exuberant on-screen style.