Kareena Kapoor, nicknamed "Bebo" is a Filmfare Award-winning Indian actress who appears in Bollywood movies. She was born on September 21, 1980 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India and is currently one of the top and most popular actresses in the industry. Since making her debut in the 2000 film, Refugee, she has acted in nearly 30 films in a span of six years. Despite not having that many hits to her credits, Kareena is regarded as one of the most versatile actresses from her generation and is currently one of the biggest names in Bollywood.

Family background

Kareena Kapoor comes from an old and influential film family. Her grandfather was Raj Kapoor; her great grandfather was Prithviraj Kapoor. She is the daughter of Randhir Kapoor and Babita, who had divorced when she was still young. Rishi Kapoor is one of her uncles. Her sister, Karisma Kapoor, is also an actress. Other living relatives include maternal aunt Sadhana, and cousins Shivani Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor and Nikhil Nanda.

Early life

Kareena attended Jamnabai Narsee School in Mumbai and then went to Welham Girl's Boarding School in Dehradun. She then went to Harvard for summer school and took a course in microcomputers and information technology for three months. Set on pursuing an acting career, she then took an admission in Government Law College at Churchgate to become a lawyer. After completing one year there, she went back to her initial plan of joining the film industry, where she attended the Kishore Namit Kapoor acting school.

Career

Kareena had planned to debut in Rakesh Roshan's Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai but left the project a few days into the filming. She made her debut in J.P. Dutta’s Refugee in 2000 with Abhishek Bachchan and won critical acclaim for portraying the role of a Pakistani girl. The role earned her an award for Filmfare Award for Best Debut (Female). In 2001, films like Ajnabee and Asoka followed for her which did indifferent business at the box office. Her breakthrough performance of a princess in the latter was acclaimed and earned her a Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. However, the success of her films Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham established her as one of the industry's most bankable stars and put her on Bollywood's A-list. Kapoor was in great demand after these successes and signed many new movies but none became the wild success of which producers dreamt of. Then the critical success of the 2004 film Chameli, where she played the role of a prostitute made critics take notice of her once again. Her performance in the film earned her the Filmfare Special Performance Award. In the same year, she also won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance for her work in the film Dev. Her other films in 2004 included the moderately successful Aitraaz and the semi-hit Hulchul. 36 China Town was Kareena's first release in 2006 followed by Chup Chup Ke. Both films managed to do moderately well at the box office. Her performance as Desdemona in the Indian adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello, Omkara was praised from audiences as well as the critics earning her a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance and a Star Screen Award for Best Actress. Her performance in the film also landed her various nominations in the best actress category including the Filmfare Awards. Her latest release, Don - The Chase Begins Again has done extremely well at the box office.She won favorable reviews both for her acting and her dancing in her item number. Kapoor has joined several touring stage shows throughout the years. Her latest tour, the Rockstars Concert of May 2006, in which she performed alongside Salman Khan, Zayed Khan, John Abraham, Shahid Kapoor, Esha Deol and Mallika Sherawat turned out to be a huge success overseas.

Personal life

Kareena is currently dating Shahid Kapoor, the son of veteran actor Pankaj Kapoor. Gossip columnists have linked her to a number of her co-stars, but she has strongly denied all these rumors. Kapoor is also known to be extremely fond of her niece Samaira. She also recently declared that she would turn vegetarian to keep her weight in check.

Contributions

In 2005, along with Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukherjee, Kareena performed at the HELP! Telethon Concert to help raise money for the victims of Tsunami. She also performed at the "Marco Ricci Each One Reach One Benefit Concert", a fundraiser for the World Youth Peace Summit.

Controversies

In 2005, Kareena was in the news when onlookers with mobile phone cameras filmed her kissing her boyfriend Shahid Kapoor and released it to the news.

Trivia

• Kapoor sang solo in the song "Jab Nahin Aye The Tum", for the movie Dev. This is unusual; most songs are sung by playback singers.
• Her good friends in the industry include actresses Rani Mukherjee, Priyanka Chopra and Amrita Arora and director/producer Karan Johar.
• A recent cricket tournament was named after her by one of her ardent fans.
• A special collection of Citizen watches were named after her.
• The actress has worked five times with Akshay Kumar, four times with Hrithik Roshan, and three times with Shahid Kapoor, Shah Rukh Khan, and Priyanka Chopra.

Facts

• Kareena's name was inspired by the book, Anna Karenina.
• She remains to be one of the top and highest paid actresses.
• From 2003-2005, Kareena was ranked #4 on the list of Filmfare's Top Actresses. The 2006 Filmfare issue had her ranked #6.
  
• Kapoor turned into a vegetarian with the influence of Shahid Kapoor.
  
• Many of her films have done better at the overseas box office (the U.K., Canada, and the U.S.)[40] than they did in the Indian domestic market.
• Kareena was invited to Pakistan's prestigious Kara Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival to promote her film, Omkara as a Bollywood entry. Due to her being busy with the Rockstars world tour, she opted not to go to the latter.
• She starred in a video with the likes of Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, and John Abraham as a kick start for the BLUE BILLION campaign that invited cricket fans all over the world to cheer for India.