Kareena Kapoor Khan: Pressure of Being Compared to 'Lolo'

Today is the birthday of Bollywood's Bebo girl Kareena Kapoor Khan. Bebo is famous for her bold style and carefree talk, but you will be surprised to know that Bebo is the only actress who became one of the highest-paid actresses with her debut and despite many flop films in her early years, she neither reduced her fees nor ever gave a screen test. Let's know some interesting facts about Bebo aka Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena was born on 21 September 1980. She is 6 years younger than her superstar sister Lolo i.e. Karisma Kapoor. She started going to shoot with Karisma when she was fifteen years old. She loved the camera, shots, acting, lighting, etc. Due to this curiosity of hers, she was signed up for a film at the age of just 19. This film was JP Dutta's 'Refugee' in which Abhishek Bachchan was also debuting with her.

She signed a film with Abhishek but when it was time to romance, 19-year-old Kareena innocently said, "How can I romance with him, I consider him my brother". Everyone on the set laughed at this statement of hers. However, later Abhishek and Kareena's sister Karisma Kapoor also had a courtship. Anyway,

The film was well-received by critics but failed to do well at the box office. But Bebo won the Filmfare Award for Best Debut for this film. This was a move that was even better than her sister Karisma Kapoor's debut. Audiences flocked to theatres to see her because of her milky white complexion.

Bebo's sister Lolo, who guided her everywhere, left the film world just a few years after her debut.

Meanwhile, Kareena did big banner films like Yaadein, Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai, Ajnabi, and Ashoka but except for Abbas Mustan's Ajnabi, none of her films became a hit at the box office. The reason for Ajnabi becoming a hit was also the tuning between Akshay Kumar and Bipasha Basu. However, from here Bobby Deol and Kareena Kapoor became friends.

For Ashoka, Kareena was also nominated for the Filmfare Best Actress Award.

After this, she got the role of Poo i.e. Pooja in Karan Johar's multi-starrer film 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham', and she played this role in such a way that even today, after twenty years, people sometimes jokingly call Kareena Poo.

Kareena was also nominated for Filmfare for Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.

After this, Kareena gave back-to-back flop films which included 'Mujhse Dosti Karoge', 'Jeena Sirf Mere Liye', 'Talaash, The Hunt Begins', 'Khushi', 'Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon', etc. These films flopped but Kareena's overacting was definitely appreciated. Yes, there was a time when Kareena was called an example of overacting but if the audience was to be believed, this style suited her.

But Kareena gave a befitting reply to all the critics by doing such a good job in Anant Balani and Sudhir Mishra's film Chameli that she got the Filmfare Special Performance Award for the first time.

After this, Kareena gave two to four flop films but her record was that she neither reduced her fees for the next film nor did she ever give a screen test for any film. Now this was her confidence in herself or the filmmakers' faith in her, but the audience liked films like Fida, Aitraaz, Hulchul, Bewafa, Kyunki, etc. and Kareena was also praised. Here it is important to add one more thing Kareena Kapoor's films may not have done well at the box office but her films were watched again and again on satellite (TV).

One such flop film in 2004 was Dev, in which Kareena starred alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Fardeen Khan; for this, she won her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress by Critics.

Talking about these days, Karani says that the best thing that I liked was that "people used to call me Karishma or Lolo's sister, I am proud of her, she was the top actress of the 90s. But at the same time people used to put pressure on me that since I am her sister, I should prove myself to be an actress like her, whereas there can be no other actress like her, no actress can replace her"

Still, after Chameli, Kareena was looking for a solid role which she would enjoy doing and which would make the world also understand her to be out of the 'Poo' character.

That's why when Vishal Bhardwaj's film 'Omkara' was offered to her, she immediately said yes. Anyway, the role of Dolly Mishra was made for her. She was again awarded the Best Actress for Critics Award for Omkara.

During this film, she met Saif Ali Khan and they became friends. At that time, Kareena was in a relationship with Shahid Kapoor.

This relationship had such an impact that when Imtiaz Ali went to meet Dharmendra and Bobby Deol to tell them the concept of his film, he decided on Bobby Deol as the lead actor in 'Jab We Met' but requested Bobby to convince Kareena Kapoor to do the film.

There was a reason why Imtiaz Ali approached Bobby Deol. He had worked with Bobby's cousin Abhay Deol in his first film Socha Na Tha. It was through Abhay that he reached the entire Deol family.

But when Kareena heard the chemistry of Geet and Aditya in Imtiaz's narration and heard about her role, she immediately said yes but put a condition that she would sign this film only if Shahid would also be in the film with her.

Imtiaz did not want to cast anyone else other than Kareena for the role of Geet. And then, this film proved to be a milestone in Kareena's career, and for the first time, Kareena Kapoor was chosen as the Best Actress of Filmfare. From here Kareena started moving away from Shahid and came very close to Saif. Saif had also divorced Amrita Singh by then. Both of them did films like 'Tashan' and 'Kurbaan' just to stay together, in which Tashan flopped badly but the audience still liked Kurbaan. She also got a Filmfare nomination for Kurbaan.

It was during this period that Kareena worked with Aamir Khan for the first time and was once again nominated for Filmfare for 3 Idiots.

Agent Vinod was also included in this series which despite being Sriram Raghavan's film, was a huge flop.

But in the same year, Kareena got married to Saif and amidst a lot of controversies, Kareena Kapoor became Kareena Kapoor Khan.

Many people thought that Kareena would no longer be seen in films. This did not happen but Kareena did work fewer films. Kareena, who used to do three to four films a year, started doing one film a year.

Her biggest film in this, which was directed by Madhur Bhandarkar; 'Heroine' flopped very badly. Kareena had a lot of expectations from this film. After this Kareena did another film with Aamir, 'Talaash', this was not only her second film with Aamir, but it was also her second film with the name Talaash, this too could not do well at the box office but the audience on satellite liked it a lot.

Next year (2013) Kareena was seen in Satyagraha, but this film too could not do much wonders at the box office. But in 2014, Rohit Shetty's film Singham Returns gave her a super hit film after a long time. From here Kareena's career came back on track.

In 2015 she again gave a blockbuster film with Salman Khan, Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

In 2016, he acted in Abhishek Chaubey's film Udta Punjab and R Balki's unique film 'Ki and Ka' and his roles in both films were highly praised. However, 'Ki and Ka' could not do any wonders at the box office.

This was the year in which Kareena gave birth to her first son 'Taimur' on 16 December. However, Kareena continued to go for shooting and work till the last week of her pregnancy.

Kareena called it her choice and said that she loves her work very much and she cannot leave this job at any cost.

However, when Kareena and Saif named their son Taimur, there was a lot of uproar because Taimur Lang was a cruel invader. But Kareena never reacted to these trolls.

In 2018, Kareena was seen in a typical Punjabi role in 'Veere Di Wedding' along with three other heroines. Although the film was critically panned, it was a super hit and Kareena once again maintained her dominance.

In 2019, Kareena did her second film with Akshay Kumar, Kiara Advani, and Diljit Dosanjh in 'Good News' and this film was also a superhit. This film based on the unique concept of IVF (test tube baby) was a special film for Kareena. Kareena also said "I was able to connect with a film like Good News, films should be made on such unique issues.

Talking about the film 'Angrezi Medium', which was released before the death of legendary actor Irrfan Khan in 2020, Kareena says, "I have worked with all the Khans. It was my deepest desire to work with Irrfan Khan as well, it is difficult to find an actor like him."

Kareena will be seen playing the lead role opposite Aamir in his third film 'Lal Singh Chaddha' which has been delayed due to Corona. But the amazing thing is that Kareena has given a screen test for the first time in 20 years.

Before this film, she had never given any audition or screen test. On this, she said, “It is very common in Hollywood that even the biggest actors who want to work in a film have to give a screen test. It's okay. And this is Aamir Khan's film. I mean he is the best. If it was someone else other than Aamir, I probably wouldn't have given the screen test. But working with him is like setting a milestone.”

Seeing actresses and models going health freak these days, Kareena says that it is very difficult for me. I tried a zero figure in a film (Tashan), which did not suit me at all (Kareena fainted during the shooting of that film). All these sprouts and healthy foods are fine but I am a girl who eats paratha, Amritsari kulcha, bhatura, I cannot follow this diet white, (laughs) I believe in eating anything and then working out.”

On 21 February this year, 2021, Kareena Kapoor Khan gave birth to another boy who was named after the Mughal emperor 'Jahangir'. Although there was controversy with his name too, since when did the daughter of the Kapoor family start getting scared of controversy?

She has also written a book on her pregnancy experience, she has named this experience as Pregnancy Bible. Now if I tell you that there has been controversy over the name of this book, then you will say what new thing has she told, after all, there will be controversy.

Today, Kareena is happily celebrating her birthday with her family and is also waiting for the release of her upcoming film 'Lal Singh Chaddha'.

We at Mayapuri Group wish Kareena Kapoor Khan a very Happy Birthday