Fame, marriage, motherhood, impending divorce… snapshots from Karisma Kapoor’s life
In many ways, she is to the manor born… born as she was into the first family of Bollywood royalty, the Kapoors. With her snow-white complexion, blue eyes and naturally lean figure apart from that Kapoor tag, life should have been a dream too. But Karisma Kapoor, the elder daughter of Randhir Kapoor and yesteryears actress Babita, was anything but smooth, both on and off the screen.
Even as she celebrated her 38th birthday, Buzzintown looks at her life…
By a strange quirk of destiny, Karisma’s life has been one big roller-coaster ride. Her debut in ‘Prem Qaidi’ was disaster by a huge margin. The blue-eyed, fair-skinned Kapoor lass got it all wrong in her debut film—from her looks to her act. How could a ‘blue eyes, fair skin’ combo go so wrong? From there on, she made rapid progress both in her looks and her choice of roles.
Her pairing with Govinda was her crowning glory. She went on to become a leading actress and possibly the only one to challenge the dominance of Madhuri Dixit in her day. It was around the time too that she began dating Abhishek Bachchan, a romance that lasted seven long years. But sadly ended in disaster and also ended in February 2003, four months after a rather public engagement.
Apparently, her mom was unhappy that Abhishek’s career had not taken off and he had delivered a whopping 17 flops! If gossip mills are to be believed Karisma’s over protective mother Babita was rather hyper that her free-spirited beti would suffocate as a demure Bachchan bahu.
The event led to a lot of bad blood between the Bachchans and Kapoors sister-mother combo.
In September 2003, Karisma married a divorcee-industrialist from Delhi, Sanjay Kapur. Gossip has it that Babita and Sanjay’s mother are fast friends. And after Sanjay’s divorce from fashion designer Nandita Mahtani, this proposal almost fell into Karisma’s lap. The marriage took place at RK Cottage in Chembur, where her famous grand father, Raj Kapoor, lived and died.
The bride and groom mutually agreed to have a Sikh wedding and despite some family members who are either related to the Bachchans (Nikhil Nanda, grandson of Raj Kapoor’s sister is married to Bachchan girl, Shweta) and Neetu Singh-Rishi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor family are said to be very close to the Bachchans, not being in attendance.
But the marriage was anything but smooth—from Karisma’s Bollywoodised glamour not quite fitting into the Delhi ‘polo-farm house parties-political’ scene. Besides, she had to start to contend with what was speculated in the media as ‘Casanova’ image of her husband.
Briefly after the birth of her daughter Samaira in 2005, she walked out of her Delhi home in Vasant Vihar and went back to her mom’s place in Mumbai. After a rather dramatic patch-up, she got back to Sanjay but the marriage was never the same.
Over time Karisma began to stay back in Mumbai for longer than usual; and then some time in 2009-2010 again there were strong rumours of an impending spilt as the media was abuzz with stories of Sanjay Kapur having a party time with Priya Sachdev, a Delhi-based model and ex-wife of US-based hotelier Vikram Chatwal.
But then something did seem to work between the two as Karisma got pregnant again and gave birth to her second baby boy, Kiaan Raj Kapoor in 2010.
Despite a flop of a marriage, Karisma has tried to maintain a brave front and has been a hands-on mother to her children, first her daughter Samaira and now her son, Kiaan attending school functions, PTA meetings with elan.
Her little girl sure understands glamour surrounded as she is by her mother who lost 23 kgs after the birth of her son and her aunt, the super sexy Kareena Kapoor. Seen here in first ever ramp walk in 2011.
Ever since Karisma Kapoor got married the media has been speculating as to when would she make a comeback. Not that Karisma seemed to be in any hurry, enjoying as she was being away from limelight and playing a hands-on mom to her children. She did eventually make a comeback with a supernatural thriller spanning several centuries with ‘Dangerous Ishq’. Unfortunately, the movie tanked at the box office.
The film did get its share of good reviews, especially for her portrayal of woman in different era speaking at least 3 different accents—Punjabi, Rajasthani and Urdu.
But the actress has been most visible in TV ads – most recently she’s been associated with online baby products portal called ‘babyoye.com’ which she endorses.
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