Karishma Kapoor is one of the members of the legendary ‘Kapoor’ family of Bollywood, who has managed to carve out a niche for herself in the film industry. A National Film Award-winning actress, she debuted in the Hindi film industry in 1991, with the movie ‘Prem Qaidi’. She has starred in as many as 65 films till date and is expected to take the present number to much higher levels.
Background
Born into an old and influential film family in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, on June 25, 1975 to Randhir Kapoor, an actor popular during the 1970s and 80s, and actress Babita. Her sister is actress Kareena Kapoor. She studied at the Cathedral and John Connon, Her grandfather was Raj Kapoor; her great grandfather was Prithviraj Kapoor,Rishi Kapoor is one of her uncles. Her sister, Kareena Kapoor, is also an actress. Other living relatives include maternal aunt Sadhana, and cousins Ranbir Kapoor.
Education
"I was easily the most mischievous girl in school. The teachers were fed up of me. And frankly I was quite fed up of them too. I couldn't sit through the maths class. We often had our physical training class before maths.
We had to change into our school uniforms from our sports uniforms before going to class. We would deliberately take time to change. When there were just 15 minutes left for the bell to go, we'd walk in, all apologetic. And the teacher would fall for it.
At other times, I would deliberately disturb the teacher and she'd throw me out of the class. Then I'd walk out of the school gates and tuck into the kairis sold by the hawkers outside."
"I was the first Kapoor to go to college, it became an event to be celebrated by the family. My parents were beaming with pride. Frankly, I wasn't too keen to go to college. But since everyone was so enthusiastic, I decided to go along.
For once, I decided to become serious about studies. I passed my psychology exams with flying colours. The teacher couldn't believe it was my paper... she checked my roll number thrice just to make sure she wasn't making a mistake. The entire class cracked up, seeing the quizzical look on her face.
At college, I would participate in the music festival. Once at the festival, a guy kept dedicating a song to me every five minutes. I went red with embarrassment but I enjoyed the attention."
Career
Karisma made her debut in the 1991 movie Prem Qaidi, which was a semi-hit. Although most of her multiple releases from 1992-1996 failed to do well at the box office, she had some success with films like Jigar (1992), Anari (1993), Raja Babu (1994), Coolie No.1 (1995), Saajan Chale Sasural (1996) and Jeet (1996).
In 1996, Kapoor played the female lead in Dharmesh Darshan's Raja Hindustani opposite Aamir Khan. The movie was the highest grossing film of the year and she won her first Filmfare Best Actress Award. The following year, she won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award and the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Yash Chopra's super-hit,Dil To Pagal Hai opposite Shahrukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit.
Kapoor took a year break from films in 1998. Her diminutive comeback in 1999 proved to be good as she took part in the year's most successful films. Kapoor starred in four absolute hits. David Dhawan's comedy Biwi No.1 opposite Salman Khan became the biggest hit of the year. She proved to have success with comedy films, as David Dhawan's another film Haseena Maan Jaayegi did fairly well at the box office.
Kapoor also collaborated for the first time with the Rajshri Productions banner with Hum Saath-Saath Hain: We Stand United which also resulted in a hit. Her last release, Jaanwar opposite Akshay Kumar, was another box office hit, making her the most successful actress of the year.
In 2000, she won her second Filmfare Best Actress Award for her performance in Khalid Mohammed's Fiza. Her performance in the film was much appreciated as she surprised the audiences and the critics showing great emotional range and depth.She also achieved critical acclaim for her role in the film, Zubeidaa (2001), which garnered her the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance. Her performance in Shakti - The Power (2002) was highly appreciated and earned her many nominations in the Best Actress category.
In 2003 she played the leading role in the television series Karishma: A Miracle of Destiny. After her film, Baaz: A Bird In Danger which also released in 2003, she took a sabbatical from full time acting for three years.
Her most recent release was the delayed film, Mere Jeevan Saathi (2006) in which she played a negative role.
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"Dream the impossible dream and it’ll come true." - personal quotation