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Kareena: The Kapoor the world is besotted with
It has been a long and dramatic journey for Kareena Kapoor, who turns 28 on September 21. From a 2000 debut in Refugee to the success of a Jab We Met in 2007. Today, she's left her competition far behind. Rani appears stale while Aishwarya looks like yesterday's news. Even a director with the sensibilities of Shyam Benegal calls her "stunningly beautiful" and aspires to work with her,
While sister Karisma had to struggle to achieve what she did, her journey made Kareena resolve that she was going to queen it in Bollywood and not let anyone dictate to her. She's been variously called "camera friendly", "natural performer" and blessed with "Kapoor acting genes".
But reaching here wasn't easy. She was accused of asking for too high a fee and being too inflexible in her demands. She ended up doing films with a Tushar Kapoor rather than a Hrithik Roshan because her demands offended filmmakers. She began being sidelined or replaced. After establishing her credentials with Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, she felt she deserved more and better films. Instead, everyone dropped her till she had nothing in her hands. This gap in her career made her more mature and, today, we have a different Bebo.
In images: Kareena tops the survey for Bollywood's best butts!
She moved away from her ambitious mother's advice, maintained a prudent silence on rumours of her affair with Hrithik Roshan and cocked a snook at the criticism levelled at her by forming a "beautiful friendship" with the relatively young Shahid Kapur. What seemed like an uneven relationship to industry watchers proved to be a stabilising factor in Kareena's life. She turned spiritual and vegetarian, learnt to mind her unruly tongue and be less brash in her press interviews
In short, she matured beautifully under the love, guidance and companionship provided by Shahid. One can't help remember how distressed she was to be caught on camera kissing Shahid in a discotheque. She went hoarse shouting that the pictures were morphed , it wasn't her, etc . But later she took it in her stride. Today, with the decade older Saif in her life she's able to reveal, with perfect equanimity, that they are lovers.
Kareena has always been known to wear her heart on her sleeve and her blunt forthrightness precedes her. Today, she's less rude and less critical about her co-stars and doesn't wear the I-am-a-Kapoor badge like a feather in her cap any longer. She's probably realised that Bollywood today has given up on first families and you are only as good as your work. Star tantrums are no longer tolerated and with the environment having changed from laxness to discipline, no one is given preferential treatment by filmmakers any more
But she still makes news whatever she does .
Her practising yoga, turning vegetarian, exercising to whittle herself down to a near size zero, making friendly overtures to co-stars she's fought with earlier, like Bipasha Basu, all add up to a new found mellowness that adds grace to the already beautiful girl. Instead of an aggressive star with an attitude, we see a more feminine side of Kareena that sits well on her.
Acting is not the easiest of professions, but says Kareena with her new found maturity: "The profession expects you to run through so many different emotions. You may not always be up to it. You have to laugh when you are told to—you may be angry, upset. You may be dying or may have fought with someone. You may not feel like laughing, but that is not anyone's concern but your own. So you do what you are told. Actors have to constantly dig within themselves and go through so many different moods—you've laughed, you've cried, banged your head against the wall all of it. You have to be constantly in a good mood. I try to take it positively that I am growing in some way."
And she has been a quick learner. When life was not going her way she was quick to change lanes and get back into the running as she did with Chameli, Dev and Omkara. After the failure of films like Yaadein, Asoka, Aitraaz, Talaash and the like, she glowed when she got rave reviews. Bouquets and awards followed. Kareena has no one to share the star/actor tag with. She's the only one today professionally. And at a personal level, her candour is so much more appealing than a Rani continually denying her affair with Adi Chopra and Aishwarya's irritating, giggly coyness.
To her credit she's paying equal attention to her profession as well as her affair with Saif. She's sitting pretty with a beau who is besotted with her and is letting the world know it.
She remains the media's favourite target and admits ruefully that the constant scrutiny does get too much to bear. "The fact that I am judged by my outward appearance isn't always fair to me. It's like judging a book by its cover, but then I calm myself down. I reason that this is the way a star's life is and then I take it in my stride. The media can become too prying and they judge without knowing facts, that is unfair and I don't feel it's necessary for the public to know so much about me."
Her survival instinct is always evident. Kareena is her own person and like everyone else, she, too, wants to be understood . "But," she says, "I want to be understood as a girl who follows her heart, as a girl who is passionate, extremely dedicated to whatever I take up. I believe that life is beautiful and should be lived that way. I'd tell all those youngsters out there to go out and follow your heart and without hurting any one. Live life to the fullest. I'd like my fans to say 'That's Kareena Kapoor, who does things on her own terms. That's the greatest way to be."
She's one cool girl who is putting her money where her mouth is. And life is smiling at her.
It has been a long and dramatic journey for Kareena Kapoor, who turns 28 on September 21. From a 2000 debut in Refugee to the success of a Jab We Met in 2007. Today, she's left her competition far behind. Rani appears stale while Aishwarya looks like yesterday's news. Even a director with the sensibilities of Shyam Benegal calls her "stunningly beautiful" and aspires to work with her,
While sister Karisma had to struggle to achieve what she did, her journey made Kareena resolve that she was going to queen it in Bollywood and not let anyone dictate to her. She's been variously called "camera friendly", "natural performer" and blessed with "Kapoor acting genes".
But reaching here wasn't easy. She was accused of asking for too high a fee and being too inflexible in her demands. She ended up doing films with a Tushar Kapoor rather than a Hrithik Roshan because her demands offended filmmakers. She began being sidelined or replaced. After establishing her credentials with Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, she felt she deserved more and better films. Instead, everyone dropped her till she had nothing in her hands. This gap in her career made her more mature and, today, we have a different Bebo.
In images: Kareena tops the survey for Bollywood's best butts!
She moved away from her ambitious mother's advice, maintained a prudent silence on rumours of her affair with Hrithik Roshan and cocked a snook at the criticism levelled at her by forming a "beautiful friendship" with the relatively young Shahid Kapur. What seemed like an uneven relationship to industry watchers proved to be a stabilising factor in Kareena's life. She turned spiritual and vegetarian, learnt to mind her unruly tongue and be less brash in her press interviews
In short, she matured beautifully under the love, guidance and companionship provided by Shahid. One can't help remember how distressed she was to be caught on camera kissing Shahid in a discotheque. She went hoarse shouting that the pictures were morphed , it wasn't her, etc . But later she took it in her stride. Today, with the decade older Saif in her life she's able to reveal, with perfect equanimity, that they are lovers.
Kareena has always been known to wear her heart on her sleeve and her blunt forthrightness precedes her. Today, she's less rude and less critical about her co-stars and doesn't wear the I-am-a-Kapoor badge like a feather in her cap any longer. She's probably realised that Bollywood today has given up on first families and you are only as good as your work. Star tantrums are no longer tolerated and with the environment having changed from laxness to discipline, no one is given preferential treatment by filmmakers any more
But she still makes news whatever she does .
Her practising yoga, turning vegetarian, exercising to whittle herself down to a near size zero, making friendly overtures to co-stars she's fought with earlier, like Bipasha Basu, all add up to a new found mellowness that adds grace to the already beautiful girl. Instead of an aggressive star with an attitude, we see a more feminine side of Kareena that sits well on her.
Acting is not the easiest of professions, but says Kareena with her new found maturity: "The profession expects you to run through so many different emotions. You may not always be up to it. You have to laugh when you are told to—you may be angry, upset. You may be dying or may have fought with someone. You may not feel like laughing, but that is not anyone's concern but your own. So you do what you are told. Actors have to constantly dig within themselves and go through so many different moods—you've laughed, you've cried, banged your head against the wall all of it. You have to be constantly in a good mood. I try to take it positively that I am growing in some way."
And she has been a quick learner. When life was not going her way she was quick to change lanes and get back into the running as she did with Chameli, Dev and Omkara. After the failure of films like Yaadein, Asoka, Aitraaz, Talaash and the like, she glowed when she got rave reviews. Bouquets and awards followed. Kareena has no one to share the star/actor tag with. She's the only one today professionally. And at a personal level, her candour is so much more appealing than a Rani continually denying her affair with Adi Chopra and Aishwarya's irritating, giggly coyness.
To her credit she's paying equal attention to her profession as well as her affair with Saif. She's sitting pretty with a beau who is besotted with her and is letting the world know it.
She remains the media's favourite target and admits ruefully that the constant scrutiny does get too much to bear. "The fact that I am judged by my outward appearance isn't always fair to me. It's like judging a book by its cover, but then I calm myself down. I reason that this is the way a star's life is and then I take it in my stride. The media can become too prying and they judge without knowing facts, that is unfair and I don't feel it's necessary for the public to know so much about me."
Her survival instinct is always evident. Kareena is her own person and like everyone else, she, too, wants to be understood . "But," she says, "I want to be understood as a girl who follows her heart, as a girl who is passionate, extremely dedicated to whatever I take up. I believe that life is beautiful and should be lived that way. I'd tell all those youngsters out there to go out and follow your heart and without hurting any one. Live life to the fullest. I'd like my fans to say 'That's Kareena Kapoor, who does things on her own terms. That's the greatest way to be."
She's one cool girl who is putting her money where her mouth is. And life is smiling at her.
Kumkum Bhagya
10