Karisma Kapoor (born 25 June 1974) is a Bollywood actress. One of the most popular and highest-paid Indian actresses, Kapoor is particularly known for her work in female-centric films and her roles have been credited as a significant departure from the traditional portrayal of women in Hindi films. Kapoor is often regarded as the nation's most beautiful actress, and is the recipient of several accolades, including a National Film Award and four Filmfare Awards. Born and raised in Mumbai, she is a member of the Kapoor family, where her parents and other relatives are all involved in the Indian film industry.

Kapoor was born on 25 June 1974 in Mumbai, to actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita (nee Shivdasani). Her younger sister, Kareena, is also an actress. Her paternal grandfather was the actor and filmmaker Raj Kapoor, while her maternal grandfather was actor Hari Shivdasani. Her great-grandfather was actor Prithviraj. She is the niece of actors Rishi and Rajiv, and insurance agent Ritu. Actor Ranbir Kapoor and businessman Nikhil Nanda are her first cousins, while actress Sasha Agha is her distant relative. Actress Sadhana was her mother's first cousin. According to Kapoor, the name "Lolo" was derived after her mother made a passing reference to the Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida. Both of her paternal and maternal grandparents were from Peshawar, Lyallpur and Karachi respectively, who moved to Bombay for their film careers before the partition of India. Kapoor is of Hindu Punjabi descent on her father's side, and on her mother's side she is of Sindhi and British descent. She was particularly inspired by the work of actresses Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit. Despite her family background, her father disapproved of women working in films, because he believed it conflicted with the traditional maternal duties and responsibility of women in the family. This led to a conflict between her parents and they separated in 1988. She and her sister Kareena were raised by their mother, who worked several jobs to raise them, until she made her debut in films as an actress. The couple reconciled in 2007, after living separately for several years. Kapoor studied at the Cathedral and John Connon School and later, for a few months at Sophia College. Kapoor made her acting debut in 1991 at the age of seventeen with the romantic drama Prem Qaidi, opposite debutante Harish Kumar. Upon release, the film emerged as a moderate box office success and received mixed reviews from critics, as did Kapoor's performance, with Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama describing it as "mechanical". The following year, Kapoor's first five releases--Police Officer, Jaagruti, Nishchaiy, Sapne Sajan Ke and Deedar--flopped at the box office. Jaagruti and Nishchaiy marked her first two collaborations with Salman Khan, while Deedar marked her first collaboration with Akshay Kumar. She next starred in the action drama Jigar (1992), followed by the romantic drama Anari (1993), both of which emerged as box office hits and among the highest-grossing films of their respective years. Jigar marked Kapoor's first of several collaborations with Ajay Devgn, while Anari featured her in the leading role of Rajnandini, a princess who falls in love with her poor servant (played by Daggubati Venkatesh). Kapoor's next four releases of 1993 were the dramas Muqabla (which marked first of her many collaborations with Govinda), Sangraam, Shaktiman and Dhanwaan. With the exception of Muqabla, none of these films performed well either critically or commercially. In 1994, Kapoor had nine film releases; four of them -- Prem Shakti, Dulaara, Andaz and Aatish--were critical and commercial failures. Her first hit that year was David Dhawan's comedy film Raja Babu, opposite Govinda, in which she played Madhubala, an educated arrogant girl who calls off her engagement upon discovering her fiancee's illiteracy. Kapoor next played the blind wife of Govinda's character in the hit action drama Khuddar, following which she starred with Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Raveena Tandon in Rajkumar Santoshi's highly acclaimed comedy film Andaz Apna Apna. Kapoor played Raveena Bajaj, the daughter of a London-based business tycoon, who travels to India in search of true love, and falls for Salman Khan's character. Although the film underperformed at the box office, it developed a significant cult following over the years since its release. Kapoor's final two releases of the year were the action drama Suhaag (alongside Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar and Nagma) and the comedy-drama Gopi Kishan (alongside Suniel Shetty and Shilpa Shirodkar), both of which were critically and commercially successful. In the former, she starred as a college student and Devgn's love interest, while in the latter, she played a police commissioner's daughter who falls in love with a criminal. In 1995, after appearing in the box office flops Jawab and Maidan-E-Jung, Kapoor starred as Malti, a rich girl who marries a poor coolie (played by Govinda) in David Dhawan's blockbuster comedy film Coolie No. 1. The feature garnered good reviews and emerged as a commercial success, grossing Rs911 million (US$14 million) in India. On her initial career struggle, she later said: When I first entered the industry, things were made tough for me. I am not saying that I was singled out. I think every star kid has to go through this. Everyone was so unfair to me. Other newcomers were praised for every little achievement, but I was not given an iota of acknowledgement. When it came to me, it was always, 'Okay, she has done well, but what's the big deal about her?'. Nobody gave a 17-year-old credit for doing my job reasonably well. In 2003, she starred in Baaz: A Bird in Danger, which was her only release that year. Later in the same year she made her television debut in the Sahara One soap opera Karishma - The Miracles of Destiny, in which she played a dual role of a grandmother and granddaughter. The serial ended after 260 episodes in 2004 and she took a sabbatical from full-time acting for several years. In 2006, Kapoor was seen in Mere Jeevan Saathi; the film had been shot and completed in 2003, but was delayed for three years. In 2007, Kapoor won the Koffee Award for Best Supporting Appearance. In 2008, alongside actor Arjun Rampal and director-choreographer Farah Khan, Kapoor began judging season four of the dance show Nach Baliye, and continued the following year with the comedy show Hans Baliye. In addition, she had a cameo in the song "Deewangi Deewangi" from the 2007 melodrama Om Shanti Om, and in 2008, was as guest on the reality television show Wife Bina Life (2010). Kapoor also ventured into voice acting, voicing for her younger sister Kareena in the role of Chhaya in the 2012 action thriller Bodyguard, which ranks among one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of all time. Kapoor made her comeback as an actress with a leading role in Vikram Bhatt's supernatural thriller Dangerous Ishhq. Co-starring Rajneesh Duggal, the film spans a period of four centuries and tells four different love stories set in different time periods. Kapoor played four characters, one from each century. A major critical and box office failure, the film generated positive reviews for Kapoor's portrayal. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama commented: "Karisma Kapoor puts forth her best efforts, getting to deliver lines in varied dialects. She gets the dialects right, especially Urdu and Rajasthani, but there's not much scope for her to display her acting prowess". In 2013, Kapoor made a special appearance along with several other actors in the titular song of the anthology film Bombay Talkies, which was made to honour the Hindi film industry for completing a hundred years. CANNOTANSWER

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