Key facts
- Known for: Actress
- Born: 21 Sep 1980, Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra
- Age: 46 years (as of 12 Nov 2026)
- Spouse: Saif Ali Khan (m. 16 Oct 2012)
Born into the Kapoor family
Kareena Kapoor was born on 21 Sep 1980 in Bombay (now Mumbai) to the actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita (née Shivdasani). She's the granddaughter of Raj Kapoor, the great-granddaughter of Prithviraj Kapoor and the younger sister of the actress Karisma Kapoor. Ranbir Kapoor is her first cousin. The family has always called her "Bebo".
Her father didn't want the women of the family to act, and her parents lived apart for much of her childhood before reconciling in 2007. Babita raised the two girls and worked to support them until Karisma's debut in 1991. Kareena has said she took her name from Anna Karenina, which her mother was reading while pregnant.
Refugee and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
She was first cast opposite Hrithik Roshan in Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000) but walked out a few days into the shoot. She debuted later that year instead, opposite Abhishek Bachchan in J. P. Dutta's Refugee, and won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.
Karan Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001) made her a star. Her Pooja, "Poo", a superficial, wisecracking London girl, is still her most quoted role, and the film was one of the biggest overseas hits Bollywood had seen. A string of failures followed in 2002 and 2003, and critics complained she was repeating Poo.
Career milestones
- 2000
Debut in Refugee
- 2001
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
- 2004
Chameli and Dev change her image
- 2007
Jab We Met; Filmfare Best Actress
- 2012
Marries Saif Ali Khan
- 2016
Son Taimur born
- 2021
Son Jeh born
- 2024
Crew; UNICEF India National Ambassador
Chameli, Dev and Omkara: the turnaround
She changed direction in 2004. In Sudhir Mishra's Chameli she played a Mumbai sex worker, a part she first turned down; it won her a Filmfare special award. Govind Nihalani's Dev, in which she played a riot victim, won her the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. The same year she was the wronged wife in Aitraaz and the lead in the thriller Fida.
Vishal Bhardwaj then cast her as Dolly, the Desdemona figure in Omkara (2006), his Othello set in Uttar Pradesh politics. It won her a second Critics award and premiered at the Cannes Film Market.
Jab We Met and the biggest hits
Imtiaz Ali's Jab We Met (2007) gave her Geet Dhillon, a chatterbox Sikh girl who runs away from home, and her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress. It's still the role most people link with her.
The years that followed brought her biggest commercial successes:
- 3 Idiots (2009): Pia, opposite Aamir Khan. It became the highest-grossing Hindi film up to then.
- Golmaal 3 (2010), Rohit Shetty's comedy with Ajay Devgn.
- Bodyguard (2011), opposite Salman Khan, India's top-earning film of that year.
- Ra.One (2011), opposite Shah Rukh Khan.
- Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), again with Salman Khan.
She also won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for We Are Family (2010), and drew strong reviews for Kurbaan (2009), Heroine (2012) and Talaash (2012), in which she played a sex worker opposite Aamir Khan.
Marriage to Saif Ali Khan
She met Saif Ali Khan on the set of Tashan (2008), and they married on 16 Oct 2012 in a private ceremony at his home in Bandra. She added Khan to her name, and has said she continues to practise Hinduism. Saif is the son of Sharmila Tagore and the cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.
Their elder son, Taimur, was born on 20 Dec 2016, and their younger son, Jeh, on 21 Feb 2021. In January 2025 an intruder stabbed Saif at their Bandra flat; he recovered after surgery.
Veere Di Wedding, Good Newwz and Crew
After Taimur's birth she returned with the female buddy comedy Veere Di Wedding (2018). Good Newwz (2019), an IVF comedy with Akshay Kumar, was one of that year's biggest Hindi hits. Laal Singh Chaddha (2022), the Forrest Gump remake with Aamir Khan, flopped, though her performance was praised.
In 2023 she moved into thrillers. Jaane Jaan, on Netflix, became the most-watched Indian film on the platform that year, and The Buckingham Murders (2024), shot mostly in English, was her first production. Crew (2024), a heist comedy with Tabu and Kriti Sanon, was a hit, and she played Avni in Rohit Shetty's Singham Again the same year.
Daayra (2026)
In Meghna Gulzar's crime thriller Daayra (2026) she played a police officer opposite Prithviraj Sukumaran. It released in September 2026 and opened at ₹1.15 crore, the lowest opening of her career. Koimoi's closing figures put it at ₹8.22 crore nett in India and ₹11.9 crore gross worldwide.
| Year | Film | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Refugee | Naaz | Debut; Filmfare Best Female Debut |
| 2001 | Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham | Pooja ("Poo") | Breakthrough |
| 2004 | Chameli | Chameli | Filmfare special award |
| 2004 | Dev | Aaliya | Filmfare Critics Award |
| 2006 | Omkara | Dolly | Filmfare Critics Award |
| 2007 | Jab We Met | Geet Dhillon | Filmfare Best Actress |
| 2009 | 3 Idiots | Pia | Highest-grossing Hindi film up to then |
| 2011 | Bodyguard | Divya | India's top earner of 2011 |
| 2015 | Bajrangi Bhaijaan | Rasika | Blockbuster |
| 2019 | Good Newwz | Deepti Batra | Hit |
| 2024 | Crew | Jasmine | Hit |
| 2026 | Daayra | Police officer | Box-office failure |
The Diwali pendant row
Her Diwali 2026 look became news. Styled by Rhea Kapoor, she wore a silver-embroidered kaftan, a turban with a 200-year-old kalgi from Saif's family and a 30-carat emerald pendant inscribed with Ayat-ul-Kursi, a verse from the Quran, which Vogue India said came from Saif's grandmother, Sajida Sultan of Bhopal. On 11 Nov 2026 the Congress leader Abbas Hafeez sent her and Rhea Kapoor a legal notice, saying the posts didn't show due reverence to the inscription and asking for them to be removed with a public apology. The Hindu Utsav Samiti publicly backed her, and reports on 11 and 12 November carried no response from Kareena.
Her family at a glance
Kareena sits at the centre of two of Indian cinema's best-known families, the Kapoors and, by marriage, the Pataudis.
| Relation | Name | Who they are |
|---|---|---|
| Father | Randhir Kapoor | Actor-director, eldest son of Raj Kapoor |
| Mother | Babita | Actress of the late 1960s and 1970s |
| Sister | Karisma Kapoor | Actress, debuted in 1991 |
| Grandfather | Raj Kapoor | Actor-director, founder of RK Films |
| Cousin | Ranbir Kapoor | Actor, son of Rishi and Neetu Kapoor |
| Husband | Saif Ali Khan | Actor, married 16 Oct 2012 |
| Sons | Taimur (b. 2016) and Jeh (b. 2021) | |
| Mother-in-law | Sharmila Tagore | Actress, former censor board chief |
| Stepchildren | Sara Ali Khan and Ibrahim Ali Khan | Saif's children with Amrita Singh |
Alia Bhatt, Ranbir's wife, is her cousin-in-law; the two families celebrated Diwali 2026 together.
Books, radio and UNICEF
She co-wrote the memoir-style The Style Diary of a Bollywood Diva (2012) and Kareena Kapoor Khan's Pregnancy Bible (2021), and hosts the radio and podcast show What Women Want. She's worked with UNICEF since 2014 on girls' education and was named a UNICEF India National Ambassador in May 2024. In 2024 PVR INOX ran a festival of her films to mark 25 years in cinema.
Net worth
No audited figure exists. She isn't on the Hurun India Rich List 2026, which names only four actors. Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list estimated her annual earnings at ₹73.5 crore in 2012, when she ranked seventh. Totals quoted elsewhere online are unsourced estimates.
Awards
She has six Filmfare Awards:
- Best Female Debut: Refugee
- Special Performance: Chameli
- Critics Award for Best Actress: Dev and Omkara
- Best Actress: Jab We Met
- Best Supporting Actress: We Are Family
Style and screen image
Kareena has been one of Bollywood's most-watched style figures since the early 2000s, and her size-zero look for Tashan in 2008 was among the most covered style stories of its year. She doesn't rehearse much: Rajkumar Hirani has said she asked him to skip rehearsals on 3 Idiots to keep her reactions fresh, and Karan Johar calls her a "natural". People magazine's Indian edition named her India's most beautiful woman in 2010.
Why she still matters
Twenty-six years after Refugee, Kareena is one of the few actresses of her generation still leading films. She's moved between huge commercial hits and riskier parts, from Chameli and Omkara to Jaane Jaan, without losing her star image. Daayra's failure has made her next choice matter more than usual.
Frequently asked questions
How old is Kareena Kapoor?
Kareena Kapoor was born on 21 Sep 1980, so she is 46 years old as of November 2026.
Who is Kareena Kapoor's husband?
The actor Saif Ali Khan. They met on Tashan (2008) and married on 16 Oct 2012 in Bandra, Mumbai.
How many children does Kareena Kapoor have?
Two sons: Taimur, born on 20 Dec 2016, and Jeh, born on 21 Feb 2021. Saif's elder children, Sara and Ibrahim, are her stepchildren.
Who is Kareena Kapoor's father?
The actor-director Randhir Kapoor, eldest son of Raj Kapoor. Her mother is the actress Babita and her sister is Karisma Kapoor.
What is Kareena Kapoor's latest movie?
Meghna Gulzar's Daayra (September 2026), a crime thriller with Prithviraj Sukumaran, in which she plays a police officer. It was a box-office failure.
Why did Kareena Kapoor get a legal notice?
On 11 Nov 2026 Congress leader Abbas Hafeez objected to her Diwali photos with an heirloom emerald pendant inscribed with a Quranic verse and asked for the posts to be removed with an apology.
Sources
- The Indian Express: Kareena Kapoor gets legal notice over pendant, 12 Nov 2026
- Mint: Legal notice and Hindu Utsav Samiti response, 11 Nov 2026
- Vogue India: The kalgi and emerald Kareena wore for Diwali, 11 Nov 2026
- The Times of India: Kapoor-Khan Diwali with Taimur and Jeh, 10 Nov 2026
- Koimoi: Daayra closing box office, 2 Oct 2026
- Filmfare: Daayra opens at ₹1.15 crore
- Wikipedia: Kareena Kapoor (cross-checked filmography, awards and family)
