Kareena
Kapoor - born September 21, 1980 nicknamed Bebo, is an Indian film
actress who appears in Bollywood films.Born into the renowned Kapoor
film family, she made her acting debut in Refugee (2000), for which she
won a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. Kapoor had her first commercial
success with her second release, Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai (2001) and later
appeared in Karan Johar's melodrama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, which
became India's top-grossing film in the overseas market that year and
her biggest commercial success to date. Kapoor followed this with
several films, which were unsuccessful at the box office, and
encountered several negative reviews and criticisms for becoming
typecast. In an attempt to reinvent her image, she took on more serious
characters, and was soon recognized for her versatility as an
actress.Her portrayal of a sex-worker in Chameli (2004) proved to be the
turning point in her career and won her the Filmfare Special
Performance Award. She later received two Critics Award for Best Actress
at the Filmfare for her performances in the critically acclaimed films
Dev (2004) and Omkara (2006). In 2007, Kapoor earned her first Filmfare
Best Actress Award for her performance in the commercially successful
comedy-romance Jab We Met. Despite not having that many hits to her
credit, Kapoor has established herself as one of the leading actresses
of Bollywood.Early life and familyMain article: Kapoor familyKapoor was
born on September 21, 1980 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Born into the
renowned Kapoor film family of Pathan and Punjabi origin, she is the
second child of actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita (née Shivdasani).
According to Kapoor, her first name was derived from the book, Anna
Karenina. She is the granddaughter of legendary actor and filmmaker Raj
Kapoor and the great granddaughter of Prithviraj Kapoor. Bebo, as she is
fondly called, is also the sister of popular actress, Karisma Kapoor
and the niece of well-known actor, Rishi Kapoor. Other living relatives
include maternal aunt Sadhana, and cousins Ranbir Kapoor and Nikhil
Nanda.Due to family tradition, her father insisted that she married
early, thus avoiding acting, which was considered a taboo for Kapoor
women.This led to irreconcilable differences between her parents, and
resulted in her mother leaving the house along with Kapoor and her
sister. She was raised by her mother, who, with difficulty, worked
several jobs to support the family, until her sister got into films in
1991. Kapoor was educated at Jamnabai Narsee School in Mumbai, and later
Welham Girls Boarding School in Dehradun. After studying commerce at
Mithibai College, Vile Parle for two years, she took a three-month
summer course in microcomputers at Harvard. She developed an interest in
law and enrolled at the Government's Law College in Churchgate. After
completing one year there, she returned to her initial plan to become an
actor,and began training under Kishor Namit Kapoor, the founder of
Kapoor Acting Lab.CareerEarly work, until 2000Kapoor was initially
approached to make her debut in Rakesh Roshan's Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai
(2000) opposite Hrithik Roshan. However, after several days into the
filming, she abandoned the project. She later explained, "It was
probably destined that I was not to be in the film. After all, it was a
launch for his son (Hrithik Roshan). The whole focus was on the boy. Now
I am glad I did not do the movie."Her career commenced with J.P.
Dutta's moderately successful war drama Refugee (2000) opposite Abhishek
Bachchan. Set during the Indo-Pakistani conflicts, the film centers on a
young man, Refugee, played by Bachchan, who carries out the illegal
activity of taking civilians to Pakistan and forth. Kapoor played the
role of Naaz, a Bangladeshi girl who falls in love with him while
migrating to Pakistan. Her performance won her critical acclaim and
Taran Adarsh from indiaFM wrote, "Kareena Kapoor has a magnetic
personality, which will make the viewer fall in love with her instantly.
What surprises you is the ease with which she emotes the most difficult
of scenes, that too against experienced performers. There's no denying
the fact that she is a natural performer who is very camera friendly."
Kapoor earned her first Filmfare Award in the Best Female Debut category
and the film eventually went on to became the fifth highest grossing
film of the year.Breakthrough, 2001-2003In 2001, Kapoor's first film,
Satish Kaushik's Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai opposite Tusshar Kapoor, surfaced
as one of the biggest hits of the year. However subsequent films such
as Yaadein and Ajnabee were not successful at the box office.Following
this, she starred as a princess in Santosh Sivan's period-epic Asoka, a
film which relates a largely fictional version of the life of the Indian
emperor Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty. Despite her earlier setbacks, the
film was well received and garnered the actress her first nomination
for Best Actress at the Filmfare.Kapoor as the cosmetic beauty "Poo" in
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), her biggest commercial success to
date.Kapoor's last release of the year was Karan Johar's drama Kabhi
Khushi Kabhie Gham, which consisted of a multi-starrer cast that
included Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Kajol and
Hrithik Roshan. The film became the second highest grossing film of the
year as well as Kapoor's highest grossing movie to date. It also did
well internationally and became the year's top grossing Bollywood film
overseas, earning over Rs 800 million worldwide. Her performance as a
cosmetic beauty was applauded and earned her a Filmfare Best Supporting
Actress nomination. Taran Adarsh noted, "Kareena Kapoor is one of the
main highlights of the film. She provides the much-needed fun and
entertainment in the second half; her performance will be loved by the
youth. Playing a cosmetic beauty to the hilt, she is simply
adorable."[20]During 2002-2003, Kapoor went through a negative period in
her career. Featuring in six films, all of which proved unsuccessful,
she appeared in two high profile films: Kunal Kohli's directorial debut
Mujhse Dosti Karoge! (2002), which was produced by Yash Raj Films, and
Sooraj R. Barjatya's Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (2003), which was produced
by Rajshri Productions. Though both films generated great business
overseas, they were critical and commercial failures in India. While her
performance in the former was described as "inconsistent", her
performance in the latter was criticized, "Kapoor was annoying in her
role as Sanjana - a role we have seen her act many times before in
movies such as [Karan] Johar's K3G (2001), [Subhash] Ghai's Yaadein
(2001) and more recently [S J] Suryah's Khushi (2003)." These films
marked the time when critics expressed their displeasure of her
repetitious kind of roles, and criticized that she was indeed in danger
of becoming typecast, which was fundamental in her attempting a
diversity of more adventurous roles in the years following.Turning
point, 2004-presentKapoor as the prostitute "Chameli" in Chameli
(2004).In 2004, Kapoor began working with independent directors and
doing more serious roles that brought her critical acclaim rather than
commercial success. Her role of a prostitute in Sudhir Mishra's Chameli
(2004) made critics take notice of her once again, earning her the
Filmfare Special Performance Award. Ashwini Deshmukh from Indiatimes
wrote, "...Kareena goes way beyond anyone's expectations, including most
decidedly her own, to deliver an all-time great performance, on a par
with Nargis in Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957), Meena Kumari in Sahib
Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) and Shabana Azmi in Mahesh Bhatt's Arth (1982).
Kareena flashes an intuitive brilliance that comes to movies very, very
rarely indeed."Following Chameli, Kapoor starred in Govind Nihalani's
critically acclaimed Dev, which dealt with the historical events of the
2001 Gujarat riots. Modeled after Zahira Sheikh, a key witness in
Vadodara's Best Bakery case, Kapoor played Aaliya, a middle-class Muslim
girl, a victim of these riots. Her performance earned her a Filmfare
Critics Award for Best Performance as well as several nominations for
Best Actress at various award ceremonies. Taran Adarsh noted, "Kareena
Kapoor is first-rate. Sporting a deglamorized look, the actress takes a
giant leap with this film. Her scene with Amitabh Bachchan [when the
latter asks for witnesses to come forward] is an example of superb
acting." In that same year, Kapoor played her first negative role in the
thriller Fida. Although the film failed to do well, she received
positive reviews for her performance, with one critic writing, "Kareena
has finally moved beyond Poo in K3G and has come into her own. She has
portrayed the parts where she is racked by guilt very well." Her next
releases that year included the thriller Aitraaz, which was moderately
successful, and the comedy Hulchul, her first box office success since
2002.This was followed in 2005 by Dharmesh Darshan's drama, Bewafaa,
alongside Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Sushmita Sen. Kapoor played the
female lead of Anjali, a girl who marries her sister's husband after her
death. Unsatisfied with her married life, she sets on a relationship
with her previous lover. The film received mixed reviews by critics and
so did Kapoor's performance. IndiaFM noted that "...This is Kareena's
film all the way and the talented actress knows how to absorb a meaty
role like this. She looks stunning, emotes with complete maturity and
delivers a knockout performance" whilst another commented,
"...Kareena...speaks in undertones and looks half-dead. She then
appeared in Priyadarshan's romantic drama Kyon Ki opposite Salman Khan.
The drama depicts the story of a man, who, unable to overcome the shock
of accidentally killing his fiancé, is hospitalized, where he meets
Kapoor's character, Dr. Tanvi Khurana. The film failed to make a profit
at the box-office, yet Kapoor's performance was well received. BBC
wrote, "It goes without saying that she [Kareena] is a pure natural when
it comes to acting."36 China Town was Kapoor's first release in 2006
followed by Chup Chup Ke. Both films managed to do moderately well at
the box office. She next portrayed the role of Desdemona in the Indian
adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello, Omkara. The film, directed
by Vishal Bharadwaj, co-starred Kapoor alongside Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali
Khan, Vivek Oberoi and Konkona Sen Sharma. Her performance was praised,
earning Kapoor her fourth Filmfare Award and first Star Screen Award
under the Best Actress category. Rediff.com concluded, "Her [Kareena's]
character is one of the hardest to essay, as she goes through love and
awe, fear and bewilderment, defiance to her father and submission to her
man. Kareena doesn't have the lines, but she has moments demanding
powerful use of expression, and she delivers." Later that year, she
appeared in an item number in Farhan Akhtar's Don - The Chase Begins
Again, a remake of the 1978 film Don. Although Kapoor's performance was
generally well received, comparisons with the original version tended
critics to conclude that she did not perform as well as the original
performer, Helen did.Kapoor reestablished her success in 2007, when her
only release that year, Imtiaz Ali's comedy-romance Jab We Met opposite
Shahid Kapoor, became one of the biggest hits of the year. The film
tells the story of two people with contrasting personalities meeting
each other on a train and how they fall in love eventually. Kapoor
played the female protagonist Geet Dhillon, a bubbly talkative Sikhni
girl who lives life to the fullest. The film was well received by
critics and Kapoor won several awards for her performance, including her
first Filmfare Best Actress Award and second Star Screen Award for Best
Actress. Rajeev Masand from CNN-IBN noted, "Uninhibited and
spontaneous, Kareena Kapoor is the soul of this picture, its biggest
strength, as she brings alive her character with not just those smart
lines, but with the kind of candor actors seldom invest in their work. I
can't think of a greater compliment to pay her than to say with full
confidence that no actress could play Geet better than Kareena
has."Kapoor's most recent release, Vijay Krishna Acharya's action
thriller Tashan, released on April 25, 2008. The film, which marked her
comeback to the Yash Raj Films banner failed to do well at the box
office. As of May 2008, Kapoor is currently filming for the sequel to
the 2006 comedy Golmaal, Golmaal Returns, as well as Prem Soni's drama
Main Aur Mrs. Khanna. Other confirmed future projects include the
animated movie Roadside Romeo and the upcoming romantic drama Kambakth
Ishq, opposite Akshay Kumar.Personal lifeKapoor with boyfriend Saif Ali
Khan at the 53rd Annual Filmfare Awards (2008).Gossip columnists have
linked Kapoor to a number of her co-stars, but she has strongly denied
all these rumors. In 2004, she began dating actor Shahid Kapoor, the son
of veteran actor Pankaj Kapoor. While dating, their relationship was
widely reported in the media, and was once in the center of a scandal
when onlookers with mobile phone cameras filmed them kissing and
released it to the news. The couple separated three years later during
the filming of their film Jab We Met (2007). Though media projected it
as a publicity stunt for the film, it was later confirmed that the
couple had indeed broken up. According to her, they remained on good
terms, with her saying in an interview, "I have seen Shahid from his
first film to Jab We Met and I can say that there is a marked
difference. According to me he is a bundle of talent waiting to explode.
I have that much of faith in him as an actor."In September 2007, during
her breakup with Kapoor, rumours began floating around that she was
seeing actor Saif Ali Khan. On October 18, 2007, during Manish
Malhotra's grand finale show at the Lakme Fashion Week, Khan confirmed
their relationship to the media saying, "Yes, we are not exactly
shouting from the rooftops but yes, clearly we are together. And we are
happy together!" Their relationship is frequently reported on in the
media, and is often subject to press speculation of a possible
engagement or marriage. However, both of them have denied these
rumours.[She also declared in 2006 that she would turn vegetarian to
keep her weight in check.CommitmentsIn 2002, Kapoor set off on her first
world tour the Heartthrobs Concert, alongside Hrithik Roshan, Karisma
Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Aftab Shivdasani. Performed throughout the US
and Canada, the show went on to be a success. Kapoor has also been
involved with different humanitarion causes. In November 2003, Kapoor
performed at the Marco Ricci Each One Reach One Benefit Concert, a
fundraiser for the World Youth Peace Summit whilst in 2005, along with
other Bollywood stars, she took part in the HELP! Telethon Concert to
help raise money for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
Later that year, Kapoor visited the desert heartland of Rajasthan to
boost the morale of the jawans for a special Holi weekend episode on the
Jai Jawan show, where entertainers and stars visited Indian troops in
far-flung regions to encourage them along with the NDTV team.During
2006, Kapoor was part of the Rockstars Concert world tour, along with
Salman Khan, Zayed Khan, John Abraham, Shahid Kapoor, Esha Deol and
Mallika Sherawat. The following year, Kapoor, along with Priyanka
Chopra, donated her half-share of 50 lakh rupees from her winnings on
the season finale of Kaun Banega Crorepati to St. Anthony's Old Age Home
and Mount Mary's Bandra.In the mediaKapoor was ranked fourth on
Filmfare's "Top Actresses" list for three consecutive years (2003-2005)
whilst she was later ranked sixth and third in 06 and 07 respectively.
In addition to that, Kapoor was ranked third on Rediff's "Top Bollywood
Female Stars" list in 2004.[58] She was later ranked seventh and fifth
in 2005-06 respectively, and came back to the third position in 2007.
Kapoor has also frequently been featured in different lists by Rediff,
including "Bollywood's Most Beautiful Actresses","Bollywood's Hottest
Heroines", Bollywood's Best Dressed Women" and "Women of Many
Faces".Kapoor has appeared twice on Karan Johar's talk show Koffee with
Karan; alongside Rani Mukerji in 2005, and Shahid Kapoor and Karisma
Kapoor in 2007. In 2006, she modeled and walked the ramp along with
Shahid Kapoor and actress Urmila Matondkar for Manish Malhotra's fashion
display, Fashion Week 2006, titled Freedom, and was a guest judge
alongside Priyanka Chopra on the singing talent contest Indian Idol 2.In
February 2007, Kapoor was listed fourth on Indiatimes' list of "Top 10
Hottest Actresses of Bollywood", and later that year, became the only
actress to be featured among "The Highest Tax Payers of 2006-07". In
July 2007, Kapoor was announced the winner of PETA's 2007 "Cutest
Vegetarian Celebrities" online poll with actor R. Madhavan. Later that
year, along with other Bollywood celebrities, the actress performed at
the opening ceremony of Kapil Dev’s Indian Cricket League (ICL) in
Chandigarh, and was ranked number 8 by the U.K. magazine, Eastern Eye,
as one of "Asia's Sexiest Women".Kareena Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor photos
Kareena Kapoor pictures, Kareena Kapoor movies
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