Kareena Kapoor was born into one of the most prestigious families in Bollywood, the renowned Kapoor Khandan. Her parents, Randhir Kapoor and Babita Kapoor, along with charismatic sister, Karisma, are some of the few renowned members of her lineage. She is the granddaughter of legendary actor and filmmaker Raj Kapoor and the great granddaughter of Prithviraj Kapoor. Her first name was derived from the book, Anna Karenina.
Kareena did her schooling 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 embarked upon a three-month summer course in microcomputers at Harvard. She later developed an interest in law and enrolled at the Government`s Law College in Mumbai. After completing one year there, she left it to enrol in the Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting School.
The first unconventional step she took was by signing Refugee immediately after rejecting Rakesh Roshan’s ‘Kaho Naa Pyar Hai’. Minor differences led to her walking out of the project. After this JP Dutta’s ‘Refugee’ (2000), opposite Abhishek Bachchan, became her debut to the bollywood. Though the film was a moderate success at Box Office, yet Kareena was hugely appriciated for her acting.
In 2001, Kapoor starred opposite Tusshar Kapoor in ‘Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai’, a romantic drama film directed by Satish Kaushik the film went on to become one of the highest earners of the year. She came back to success with Karan Johar’s ‘Kabhi Khusi Kabhi Gham’ (K3G). Her glamorous performance in K3G established her as an A-list actress in the industry. The movie also emerged as the second highest grossing film of the year in India, as well as Kareena’s highest grossing movie. It also performed well internationally and became the year`s top-grossing Bollywood film overseas, earning over Rs 800 million worldwide.
The year 2004 marked the beginning of Bebo’s work with independent film directors and more serious roles, most of which would bring her critical acclaim rather than commercial success. Her role of a prostitute in Sudhir Mishra’s ‘Chameli’ (2004) proved to be a turning point in her career and made critics take notice of her once again. She also gained critical acclaim for her de-glamorized role in the critically acclaimed ‘Dev’.
She is also well known for her performance as Desdemona in the Indian adaptation of William Shakespeare`s Othello, ‘Omkara’, and her performances was highly praised. Another role for which she came to be well known was in her 2007 Imtiaz Ali’s romantic-comedy ‘Jab We Met’.