[1] While on a train from the newly created Pakistan to India, a massacre took place; Kapur's mother Sheel played dead and hid both himself and his sister under her body.

[11] He turned director with the family drama Masoom (1983), starring Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and a young Jugal Hansraj and Urmila Matondkar.

He then directed the 1987 science-fiction film Mr. India, starring Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Amrish Puri in his most famous role as the villain Mogambo.

In 1992, he had shot some scenes for Barsaat, which was originally titled Champion[15] and was going to be the debut film of Bobby Deol, but he left the production and was replaced by Rajkumar Santoshi.

In 1995, he partly directed Dushmani, starring Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff and Manisha Koirala before its producer Bunty Soorma stepped in to complete the film.

Kapur executive-produced the Bollywood-themed musical Bombay Dreams by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which ran in London's the West End and on Broadway in New York City for 1 year.

In 2016, Kapur delivers an autobiographical film and documentary about Amma, well known as Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, called "The Science of Compassion".

[18] It was announced in March 2019 that Kapur will be directing a TV series for Endemol Shine based on historical novels by Amitav Ghosh, known as the "Ibis Trilogy", which details the opium wars among Britain, India and China in the mid-19th century.

[19][20] Kapur is all set to adapt Amish Tripathi's critically acclaimed book series Shiva Trilogy into a television web show.

[22] Kapur started his career as an actor in the movie Jaan Hazir Hai (1975)[23] starring Prem Kishen and Trilok Kapoor and later in Toote Khilone, in Bollywood.

In an unusual role for him, Kapur provided the voice of Mohandas Gandhi in the Charkha Audiobooks title of The Story of My Experiments with Truth, alongside Nandita Das as narrator.

[25] In 2006, Kapur formed Liquid Comics and Virgin Animation, an entertainment company focused on creating new stories and characters for a global audience.

[33] She claimed that the property rightfully belongs to their daughter, but has been rented to actor Kabir Bedi and his wife Parveen.