multicanais palmeiras x botafogo | Kareena Kapoor

Kareena Kapoor (born September 21, 1980, Bombay [Mumbai], Maharashtra, India) is an Indian actress known for her work in Bollywood films. Especially noted for her charismatic screen presence and versatility, Kapoor has portrayed a wide range of feisty characters such as the flamboyant Pooja in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001; “Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sadness”) and the free-spirited Geet in Jab We Met (2007; “When We Met”).

multicanais palmeiras x botafogo - Family

Kareena Kapoor belongs to the fourth generation of the Kapoor film dynasty, which comprises several acclaimed actors and directors who made seminal contributions to Hindi cinema. She is the younger daughter of veteran Bollywood actor Randhir Kapoor and actress Babita. She has an elder sister, Karisma Kapoor, who is also a Bollywood actress. Her paternal great-grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor was a pioneering film and stage personality who founded the Prithvi Theatres, an itinerant theater company, in Bombay (Mumbai). Kareena Kapoor’s grandfather Raj Kapoor and his brothers Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor were among the foremost Bollywood stars of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. Randhir Kapoor’s brother and sister-in-law Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, their son, Ranbir Kapoor, and Ranbir’s wife, Alia Bhatt, are also renowned Bollywood actors.

In 2012 Kareena Kapoor married Saif Ali Khan, the son of veteran actress Sharmila Tagore and Indian cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Khan and Kapoor have costarred in films such as Tashan (2008; “Style”), Kurbaan (2009; “Sacrifice”), and Agent Vinod (2012). Kapoor added her husband’s surname to her maiden name after marriage. The couple welcomed their first child, son Taimur Ali Khan, in 2016. They received heavy criticism for the choice of the name as it drew comparisons to Timur, a 14th-century Turkic conqueror who invaded India and led brutal military conquests. Saif Ali Khan later clarified that Taimur is a Persian name that means “iron” and bears no connection to the Turkic conqueror. Their second child, son Jehangir Ali Khan, was born in 2021.

multicanais palmeiras x botafogo - Debut and rise to superstardom

Kareena Kapoor made her debut in the romantic drama Refugee (2000), alongside fellow debutant Abhishek Bachchan (son of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan). The film achieved moderate success at the box office, but Kapoor amassed critical acclaim for her performance and was hailed as a star. The following year she starred in five films, beginning with the hit romantic drama Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai (“I Have Something to Say”). She also appeared opposite Hrithik Roshan in the romantic drama Yaadein (“Memories”), which underperformed at the box office, and starred alongside Akshay Kumar, Bipasha Basu, and Bobby Deol in the crime thriller Ajnabee (“Stranger”), a moderate commercial success. With Shah Rukh Khan she starred in Asoka, a historical drama based on the life of the emperor Ashoka (reigned c. 265–238 bce; also given as c. 273–232 bce) of the Mauryan dynasty. The film was a commercial failure, but Kapoor received recognition for her performance as Kaurwaki, the queen consort of Ashoka.

The fifth of Kapoor’s five releases in 2001, the blockbuster romantic drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, became one of the most enduring films of her career. She was a part of an ensemble cast that included such leading Bollywood stars as Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, and Hrithik Roshan. Kapoor delivered one of her most memorable performances in the film as Pooja (“Poo”) Sharma, a spirited and glamorous young woman who helps reunite her brother-in-law (played by Shah Rukh Khan) with his estranged family. The character Poo, widely regarded as an Indian pop culture icon, is still hailed as a fashion trailblazer for her trendsetting ensembles. The character’s lines, such as “Kaun hai ye jisne dobara mudke mujhe nahi dekha” (“Who is this person who did not look back at me?”), are frequently quoted.

Kapoor capitalized on the success of her performance as Poo by taking on a variety of roles. She played conventional romantic leads in films such as Mujhse Dosti Karoge (2002; “Will You Be My Friend?”), Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (2003; “I Am Crazy About Prem”), both of which reunited Kapoor on-screen with Hrithik Roshan, and Khushi (2003). The war film LOC: Kargil (2003), which was the first on-screen collaboration between Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan, met with limited commercial success. In 2004 Kapoor experimented with the drama Chameli, in which she played a street-smart, compassionate sex worker, a significant departure from the conventional romantic leads she had chiefly portrayed until then. Although the film did not perform well at the box office, Kapoor’s performance in the film received widespread acclaim.

Kareena Kapoor continued to amass critical recognition with her roles in such films as Yuva (2004; “Youth”), Dev (2004), and Aitraaz (2004; “Objection”). She also appeared in the hit romantic comedy Hulchul (2004; “Commotion”). In the 2006 thriller comedy 36 China Town, she played a clever young woman who, along with a stranger she befriends (Shahid Kapoor), becomes entangled in a murder mystery. She was again paired with Shahid Kapoor in her next film, Chup Chup Ke (2006; “Quietly”), a romantic comedy about a debt-ridden young man who pretends to be mute and deaf to get by but falls in love with a woman who is actually mute and deaf.

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Kareena Kapoor delivered another one of her notable performances in Omkara (2006). The film, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello (written 1603–04), was directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and starred such prominent Bollywood actors as Naseeruddin Shah, Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, and Vivek Oberoi. Kapoor portrayed Dolly (based on the character Desdemona), who elopes with a political enforcer named Omkara (based on Othello; played by Devgn) and eventually meets a tragic end brought about by mistrust, jealousy, and betrayal. Langda Tyagi, the Iago analogue, was played by Saif Ali Khan.

In the late 2000s Kapoor starred in several commercially successful films. In 2007 she again starred with Shahid Kapoor in the romantic comedy Jab We Met. She played the role of Geet, an adventurous and optimistic young woman who defies her conservative family and runs away from home to be with her lover. After being betrayed by her lover, she ultimately finds true love with Shahid Kapoor’s character. Geet remains one of the most beloved female characters in Kapoor’s oeuvre. In 2008 Kapoor portrayed a suspicious, melodramatic wife in the comedy Golmaal Returns (2008; “Chaos Returns”). She also appeared in the film’s stand-alone sequel Golmaal 3 (2010) as a young woman who attempts to rekindle the love between two former lovers. Kapoor was a part of the cast of the hit comedy drama 3 Idiots (2009), in which she played a sharp, strong-willed medical student who falls in love with a brilliant but rebellious engineering student (Aamir Khan) who routinely challenges her father (Boman Irani), the authoritarian dean of the engineering college.

In 2010 Kapoor starred with Kajol and Arjun Rampal in the drama We Are Family, based on the 1998 Hollywood film Stepmom. She played a career-driven woman who tries to become a supportive stepmother after the former wife (Kajol) of her boyfriend (Rampal) is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Kapoor starred with the three Khans—Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Aamir Khan—in the romantic drama Bodyguard (2011), the sci-fi film Ra.One (2011), and the mystery thriller Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (2012; “Search”), respectively. She also received acclaim for her starring role in Heroine (2012), a drama about a superstar grappling with fame, ambition, and personal struggles. Kapoor secured the role after Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who had been initially cast as the lead, was controversially dropped from the film after she announced her pregnancy. Kapoor’s next notable credit was the action drama Singham Returns (2014), in which she starred with Ajay Devgn. Kapoor played Avni Kamat, the love interest of the daring, larger-than-life police officer Bajirao Singham (Devgn).

Later career

In 2015 Kapoor reunited with Salman Khan, with whom she had last appeared in Bodyguard, in the film Bajrangi Bhaijaan (“Brother Bajrangi”), a drama about an Indian Hindu man, Pawan Kumar (Khan), who embarks on a journey to reunite a lost Pakistani girl with her family across the border. Kapoor played Kumar’s love interest, Rasika. She subsequently appeared in such films as Ki & Ka (2016), a romantic drama about a couple (Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor) navigating subverted traditional gender roles in their marriage; the social drama Udta Punjab (2016; “Flying Punjab”), in which Kareena Kapoor played a doctor who, along with a police officer (Diljit Dosanjh), sets out to combat rampant drug use and peddling in Punjab; Veere Di Wedding (2018; “My Friend’s Wedding”), a comedy drama about four friends (Kareena Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhasker, and Shikha Talsania) grappling with modern-day relationships and societal expectations; and Good Newwz (2019), a comedy drama about two married couples (Kapoor, Diljit Dosanjh, Kiara Advani, and Akshay Kumar) and a mix-up during their in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment that upends their lives. In 2022 Kapoor again appeared opposite Aamir Khan in Laal Singh Chaddha, a remake of the Hollywood classic film Forrest Gump (1994), but it did not fare well at the box office.

In 2023 Kapoor appeared in two thrillers. She made her streaming debut in the Netflix film Jaane Jaan (“Beloved”), in which she portrayed a single mother who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation, starring alongside acclaimed actors Vijay Varma and Jaideep Ahlawat. Kapoor played a British Indian detective who unravels the mystery of a child’s murder in an English town in The Buckingham Murders. In 2024 she starred with actresses Tabu and Kriti Sanon in Crew, a comedy drama about three flight attendants who turn to gold smuggling to ease their financial hardships. The film also starred Dosanjh. Later that year Kapoor reprised her role as Avni Kamat in the hit action drama Singham Again, the sequel to Singham Returns.