Kareena Kapoor
About
Biography
Filmography
Biography
One of the most celebrated Indian actresses of the new millennium, Kareena Kapoor earned widespread critical praise and numerous awards for playing characters that surpassed the ornamental limitations placed on most Bollywood roles for female talent in major hits like "Refugee" (2000), "Chameli" (2004), "Dev" (2004) and "3 Idiots" (2009). Equally at home in light comedy, sprawling musicals, action-oriented thrillers and intimate dramas, Kapoor is best utilized as independent-minded, self-reliant women, which is also an accurate reflection of her own professional and personal life. Kapoor's work netted numerous Filmfare Awards and nominations, while her off-camera romances with leading men like Shahid Kapoor (no relation) and future husband Saif Ali Khan made her the focus of media attention, all of which positioned her as one of the biggest stars in what was arguably the most productive film industry in the world. Kapoor's talent and profile continued to grow exponentially each year, which only furthered her fame in the global film market.
Born September 21, 1980 in Mumbai, India, Kareena Kapoor was part of a large family of Bollywood talent, including her parents, actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita, and her grandfather, actor/director Raj Kapoor. Named for the heroine in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Kapoor wanted to follow in her parents' footsteps, but was discouraged by her father, who believed that performing conflicted with traditional women's duties of child-rearing and homemaking. Disagreements over this issue led to her parents' separation, and her mother raised both Kapoor and her sister, actress Karisma Kapoor. After studying finance and law in both India and the United States, Kapoor returned to her first love and studied acting at the Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting School in Mumbai. While there, she was cast in her first film, "Kaho Naa. Pyaar Hai" ("Say. You Love Me") (2000) for director Rakesh Roshan. However, she left the project in the middle of production, citing a conflict with the director over the amount of focus given to his leading man, Hrithik Roshan, who also happened to be his son. Kapoor's proper film debut came that same year in "Refugee" (2000) as a Bangladeshi woman attempting to flee her newly formed country during the 1970 Indo-Pakistani war. Though only a modest hit, Kapoor's performance was praised by critics and earned a Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.
She quickly established herself as a versatile actress, netting Filmfare Award nominations as both a princess in the sprawling historical epic "Asoka" (2001) and as a modern young woman in the ensemble drama "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham." (2001), which became the second-highest grossing film of that year. But Kapoor also struggled to maintain her box office viability, especially during a string of films between 2002 and 2003 that were both critical and commercial failures. Stung by popular perception that she was typecast in aesthetically pleasing if unchallenging roles, Kapoor tackled a series of projects with greater depth, including "Chameli" (2004), which cast her as a sex worker, and earned her the Filmfare Special Performance Award. A second Filmfare Award for Best Actress came for her turn as a Muslim victim of interfaith riots in "Dev" (2004), which was soon followed by her first unsympathetic role as a bank robber in the thriller "Fida" (2004). Kapoor worked steadily for the next two years, appearing in comedies and light dramas like "Hulchul" (2004) and more dramatic fare like "Omkara" (2006), a crime thriller based on Shakespeare's "Othello" which earned her a fourth Filmfare Award, as well as a Screen Award as the picture's Desdemona figure.
Following the success of "Omkara," Kapoor took a three-year break from the industry, during which she focused her attention on her careers as both a music performer and charity participant, as well as spokesperson for the Globus retail chain. She returned to acting with the romantic comedy, "Jab We Met" (2007), a box office hit which also provided her with a fifth Filmfare Award for Best Actress as a feisty young woman who helped a depressed businessman, played by Kapoor's real-life boyfriend, Shahid Kapoor. The couple split shortly after the film's release, and Kapoor began a much-publicized relationship with her co-star in the action-thriller "Tashan" (2008). She soon settled into a series of critically panned but high-grossing films like the comedy "Golmaal Returns" (2008) and "Kambakkht Ishq" (2008), which featured cameos by Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards. But she rebounded with Filmfare nominations as a woman married to a terrorist (played by Khan) in the thriller "Kurbaan" (2009), and for the comedy "3 Idiots" (2009), which topped box office records as the highest grossing Bollywood film in history.
The following year, Kapoor netted her sixth Filmfare award as a career-minded woman in "We Are Family" (2010). She then enjoyed a slew of critically panned but unprecedented box office hits in "Golmaal 3" (2010), a sequel to "Golmaal Returns," as well as "Bodyguard" (2011) and the science fiction epic "Ra.One" (2011), which made history as the most expensive Hindi film ever produced. With this series of glamour roles at an end, Kapoor bolstered her status as one of the Indian film industry's most adroit talents with the hit comedy "Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu" (2012) as a free-spirited woman who accidentally married a straight-laced architect (Imran Khan) after a single night together in Las Vegas. She then played a high-strung Bollywood actress in "Heroine" (2012), which earned her multiple award nominations, and an escort involved in a complex murder plot in "Talaash: The Answer Lies Within" (2012). After completing this latest round of hits, Kapoor and Khan were married on October 16, 2012 in what was described by the Indian media as the social event of the year.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Life Events
2000
First Filmfare Award for "Refugee"
2001
First major box office success with "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham¿" which grossed $17 million worldwide
2004
First film with boyfriend Shahid Kapoor, "Fida"
2007
Splits with Kapoor and begins relationship with Saif Ali Khan
2009
Stars in "3 Idiots," the highest grossing Bollywood film in history
2011
Stars in most expensive Hindi film to date, "Ra.One"
2012
Married Khan in five-day ceremony
