Kareena Kapoor

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Kareena Kapoor was born on September 21, 1977 in Bombay in a family that has been acting in the films for generations. Her father is a famous actor Randhir Kapoor with Punjabi origin and mother Babita with Sindhi background. She is younger sibling to her parents, her sister Karisma too is a famous actress and has contributed a lot to the world of entertainment in Bollywood.

Her father was not interested to let their daughters to take up career in acting, instead he was interested then to get married, and settle down, as per the Kapoor family tradition. This led to irreconcilable differences between her parents, ultimately leading to a divorce, with both sisters leaving their dad to live with their mom. She was raised by her mother, she had many difficulties bringup tow daughters at her own and took up several jobs to support the family, until her sister karisma got into films in 1991.

As a child, she studied in Jamnabai Narsee School in Juhu, Bombay, and thereafter was enrolled in Dehra Dun's prestigious Welham Girls' Boarding School. Then she went to Harvard for approximately 3 months to pursue a course in Information Technology and Microcomputers. Upon her return to India, she joined the Government Law College in Churchgate, Bombay, but left it after one year, to enroll in the Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting School.

Acting was in her blood and it was running in the family for generation. Her paternal great-grandfather, Prithviraj Kapoor was an actor; her grandfather, Raj Kapoor; her paternal uncles, Shammi, Shashi, Rishi, and Rajiv, her aunt Neetu Singh and Jennifer Kendall, the wives of Rishi and Shashi are all known name to the Bollywood. If we look at her maternal side, her grandfather, Hari Shivdasani, and aunt, Sadhana, were too great actors of their time. At present her cousins Ranbir Kapoor and Nikhil Nanda has already stepped in to act in Bollywood.

Initially Kareena was approached for Rakesh Roshan's Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000), opposite Hrithik Roshan, but shooting took too long and she soon abandoned the project thinking the focus was given more to Hrithik and she later admitted this openly.

Her career commenced with J.P. Dutta's moderately successful Refugee (2000) opposite Abhishek Bachchan. Set during the India-Pakistan 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.

Taran Adarsh from indiaFM wrote, "Kareena Kapoor has a magnetic personality, which will make the viewer fall in love with her instantly. On a scale of 10, Kareena's performance deserves 9 marks, dialogue delivery 8 and overall personality 10. 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.� The role earned her a Filmfare Best Debut Award and the film went on to become the fifth highest grossing film of that year.

Success followed for her with films like 'Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai' and 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham'. The former became one of the biggest hits of that year and the latter became the second highest grossing film of 2001.These successes established her as one of the industry's most successful stars.

In 2001, films like 'Yaadein' and 'Asoka' followed for her which did poorly at the box office. However her breakthrough performance of a princess in the latter was acclaimed and earned her a Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Her next release, 'Ajnabee' fared moderately well and became one of the highest grossing films of that year.

With consecutive success, she was offered and signed many new movies, but most of them failed to do well, including much-hyped films like 'Mujhse Dosti Karoge' (2002) and 'Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon' (2003) that came from big banners like Yash Raj Films and Rajshri Productions, though it failed to win the audience in India, films generated decent business overseas.

In 2004, Kareena took up a role of prostitute in film Chameli, her role was appreciated again and she was awarded the Filmfare Special Performance Award for her role in the film. She never looked abck and go on adding more films to her portfolio with varied roles. Some of her films are Yuva, Dev, Fida, Aitraaz, Hulchul, Bewafaa, Kyon Ki, 36 China Town, Chup Chup Ke, Omkara, Milenge Milenge, Kya Love Story Hai, Jab We Met, Halla Bol, Tashan, and many upcoming films are Golmaal Returns (2008), Roadside Romeo (2008).

A gist to her personal life, she dated actor Shahid Kapoor, the son of veteran actor Pankaj Kapoor for three years. While dating, their relationship was widely reported in the media, in one of the function, onlookers with mobile phone cameras filmed them kissing and released it in the media, which brought them again to the limelight of the people.

Their relationship was ended during the filming of their film Jab We Met (2007). Right now she is 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!" But she has made it clear marriage is not happening soon, at least for next five years.

Till date, she has appeared for number of films and she has been listed in A category actress. And with the potential energy she possesses, there is still long way to go for this stunning actress and achieve more entertaining people and contributing to the society.