Kareena Kapoor

Nicknamed "Bebo" is an award-winning prominent Indian actress who appears in Bollywood movies.

Making her acting debut with J.P. Dutta's Refugee (2000), for which she won a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award, Kapoor had her first commercial success with her second release, Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai (2001).Her performance as a cosmetic beauty in Karan Johar's melodramatic Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, which also released that year, was praised and the film turned out to be her biggest commercial success to date. After that, Kapoor starred in several films which were less successful at the box office and received some criticism in that she was becoming typecast. As a result of this, she began taking on more serious and diverse roles, and was soon recognized for her versatility as an actress.

Her portrayal of a sex-worker in Sudhir Mishra's Chameli (2004) proved to be the turning point in her career and won her the Filmfare Special Performance Award. Following this, her performances in critically acclaimed films like Dev (2004) and Omkara (2006) were praised and earned her two Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. Despite not having that many hits to her credit, Kapoor has established herself as one of the leading actresses of Bollywood.

Hailing from the renowned Kapoor film family of Punjabi origin, Kapoor was born on September 21, 1980 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, as the second child of actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita (née Shivdasani). According to Kapoor, her first name was derived from the book, Anna Karenina

She is the grand-daughter of the legendary actor and film-maker Raj Kapoor and the great grand-daughter of Prithviraj Kapoor. Bebo, as she is fondly called, is also the sister of popular actress, Karisma Kapoor and the niece of well-known actor, Rishi Kapoor. Other living relatives include maternal aunt Sadhana, and cousins Ranbir Kapoor and Nikhil Nanda.

Due to family tradition, her father wanted her to get married early and settle down, thus avoiding acting, which was considered a taboo for Kapoor women.[9] This led to irreconcilable differences between her parents and they decided to separate, resulting in her mother taking her along with her sister.

Kapoor attended Jamnabai Narsee School in Mumbai as a child, and then went to Welham Girls Boarding School in Dehradun. After studying commerce at Mithibai College, Vile Parle for two years, she 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 took an admission in Government Law College at Churchgate to become a lawyer. After completing one year there, she returned to her initial plan of joining the film industry and began training to become an actress under Kishor Namit Kapoor, the founder of Kapoor Acting Lab.