Indian actress and screen idol Kareena Kapoor specialized almost exclusively in Bollywood features; over the course of her career, she not only netted an audience sizeable enough to rival or outstrip the majority of her contemporaries, but balanced one of the heftiest workloads imaginable, with several films per year. Born in Mumbai, India, in 1980 as the daughter of two famous Bollywood actors (and the granddaughter of Indian screen veteran Raj Kapoor), Kapoor defied her father's wishes that she marry by following in the family tradition and pursuing a show-business career; her parents' disagreements about this caused a rift in their relationship, which forced the mother to leave home and work several jobs to support her two daughters. (The parents later reunited after a 20 year separation.)

Kapoor received a hand up in show business thanks to the doings of her sister Karisma, who also eked out an acting career. Kareena studied at such venerable institutions as Mumbai's Jamnabai...