He is the son of actors Pankaj Kapoor and Nima Azeem. But when he was three years old, his parents divorced. After that, he lived with his mother and grandfather in Gunagard County (a county under the jurisdiction of Gujarat, India). He also has a good relationship with his father and stepmother. Regarding his religious beliefs, he once said in an interview that because his father is Hindu and his mother is Muslim. His parents warned him: "You can't betray any religious beliefs. No matter what others believe, you can't attack others for no reason." Shahid said that he believes that "we are all children of the same God".
As a child, Shahid studied in Rajhans Vidyalaya in Mumbai. He has three brothers and sisters (half-brothers): elder sister Sanah, two younger brothers Ruhaan and Ishaan Khattar. Ethan is in the movie Vaah! With him, he performed "Where is Life?" (2005). Shahid's grandfather is a writer in Bihar and a famous Marxist journalist. My grandmother is Anwar Azeem, and she is also a famous Urdu writer. His great-grandfather Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, the famous Abbas, was a director, screenwriter, Urdu novelist and journalist, and Abbas's grandfather was the author of the famous Urdu poem Ghalib.