Kareena Kapoor - Actresses, Career and Family

Kareena Kapoor was born on 21 September 1980 in Mumbai to Randhir Kapoor and Babita. Both her parents were prominent actors though her mother stopped acting after marriage. She has one elder sister, Karisma. She is of Punjabi descent on her father’s side and of Sindhi and British descent on her mother’s.

Being born into a family with a rich legacy in films, the girl was exposed to the show business at an early age. She was much inspired by actresses, such as Meena Kumari and Nargis, and wanted to become an actress herself on growing up.

Her father, however, did not want his daughters to enter films. His conservative attitude led to a conflict between her parents and they separated. Kareena and her sister went to live with their mother who worked several jobs in order to support the family. Eventually Karisma became an actress, further motivating her younger sister to follow in her footsteps.

Kareena went to Jamnabai Narsee School in Mumbai, followed by Welham Girls' School in Dehradun. She was not inclined towards academics but studied well in order to satisfy her mother.

She then studied commerce for two years at Mithibai College before joining a three-month summer course in microcomputers at Harvard Summer School in the United States.

On her return to India, she enrolled at the Government Law College in Mumbai only to drop out after a year. In her late teens now, she decided to pursue acting seriously and thus began training under acting coach Kishore Namit Kapoor, a member of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

Kareena Kapoor made her debut in ‘Refugee’, a war film, in 2000. Aged 19 at that time, she played the role of a Bangladeshi girl who falls in love with a refugee, portrayed by Abhishek Bachchan. The film was a moderate hit and earned the young actress much acclaim.

In 2001, she starred opposite Tusshar Kapoor in Satish Kaushik's movie ‘Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai.’ The movie was a hit and heralded Kapoor as a young and upcoming actress to reckon with. The same year, she shared the big screen with superstars Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, and Kajol in the film ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham...’

Early in her career, she also suffered a major setback when several of her films failed to perform well at the box office. Within a span of two years, six of her films—‘Mujhse Dosti Karoge!,’ ‘Jeena Sirf Merre Liye,’ ‘Talaash: The Hunt Begins...,’ ‘Khushi,’ ‘Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon,’ and ‘LOC Kargil’—flopped.

By the mid-2000s, she had played the stereotypical role of a pretty but superficial girl in a number of films. Determined to avoid being typecast and break the mold, she took up the challenging role of a sex worker in the film ‘Chameli’ (2004). This role helped her reinvent her on-screen persona.

In 2006, she acted in three films, ‘36 China Town,’ ‘Chup Chup Ke,’ and ‘Omkara.’ The following year, she played a bubbly girl, ‘Geet,’ in the romantic comedy film, ‘Jab We Met,’ which also starred Shahid Kapoor.

She became a part of the ensemble cast for the 2009 movie ‘3 Idiots,’ a film loosely based on the novel ‘Five Point Someone’ by Chetan Bhagat. She played a medical student, Pia, in the film which also had Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in major roles. The film proved to be a blockbuster.

Kareena Kapoor began the 2010s with a string of hit films: ‘We Are Family’ (2010), ‘Bodyguard’ (2011), ‘Agent Vinod’ (2012), and ‘Heroine’ (2012). Of all these movies, she felt that acting in ‘Heroine’ was the most demanding.

She got married in late 2012 and reduced her workload in order to devote more time to her family. Over the ensuing years she did not take up any major projects and did only cameo appearances in a handful of films.

She once again became serious about her acting career in 2016 and played the role of Kia, a career-oriented young lady, in the film ‘Ki & Ka.’ The same year, she did the role of Dr. Preet Sahni in the critically acclaimed film ‘Udta Punjab.’ Her upcoming project, ‘Veere Di Wedding,’ is set to release later in 2017.

In addition to her film career, she has also launched her own clothing line in association with the retail chain Globus. She has co-authored three books as well: an autobiographical memoir and two nutrition guides.

Kareena Kapoor is actively involved in a number of philanthropic endeavors. She began working with UNICEF in 2014 to advocate the education of girls and increase quality based education in India. She has also been an ambassador for the Shakti Campaign, a project launched by NDTV to combat violence against women.

Kareena Kapoor’s portrayal of Dolly Mishra in the 2006 crime drama film ‘Omkara,’ adapted from Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ was much appreciated by the critics. This role won her the Filmfare Best Actress (Critics) Award. The highly acclaimed film was showcased in the Marché du Film section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2007, she played a vivacious girl, Geet, in the romantic comedy ‘Jab We Met.’ The film was about the story of two people with contrasting personalities who meet on a train and eventually fall in love. She was lauded for her performance and honored with several awards.

Though known for her beauty and sex appeal, the actress shed her glamorous avatar to play the serious character of Dr. Preet Sahni in Abhishek Chaubey's critically acclaimed ‘Udta Punjab,’ a movie about substance abuse in the Indian state of Punjab. This performance earned her nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the Filmfare and Zee Cine award ceremonies.

Kareena Kapoor has received six Filmfare Awards out of ten nominations, including Best Female Debut in 2000 for ‘Refugee,’ the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for ‘Jab We Met’ (2007) and ‘We Are Family’ (2010) respectively.

She received the Smita Patil Memorial Award for her contributions to the Hindi film industry in 2006.

Kareena Kapoor was once in a relationship with fellow actor Shahid Kapoor. Their relationship gained a lot of media attention and their eventual break-up was also much publicized.

She later started dating actor Saif Ali Khan. Initially the couple kept their relationship under wraps, before confirming that they were indeed dating. The couple got married on 16 October 2012 and welcomed a son, Taimur, in December 2016.