All about Sonam Kapoor

Posted by Mehdi Hassan on August 3rd, 2008 in Bollywood | Comments Off

Name: Sonam Kapoor

Birth Date: June 9, 1985

Current Residence: Mumbai

Father: Anil Kapoor (Actor)

Mother: Sunita Kapoor

Grandfather: Late Surinder Kapoor

Uncle(s): Boney Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor

Acting career:

Sonam Kapoor is not a stranger to Bollywood. Daughter of famous actor Anil Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor started her career behind the camera. She worked as an assistant of famous director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, in Black. At that time, Sanjay Leela Bhansali decided that Sonam Kapoor will play the lead female role in his upcoming movie, Saawariya.

Saawariya was released in November 2007 but the movie did not do well in the box office. Still, Sonam Kapoor got recognized for her beautiful face and acting. In Saawariya Sonam Kapoor was paired up with Ranbir Kapoor, son of Rishi Kapoor and the fourth generation actor of the famous ‘Kapoor family’ in Bollywood.

Debut movie:

Sonam Kapoor’s debut movie, Saawariya, is a romantic movie. Inspired from the short story, ‘White Nights,’ by famous Russian novelist and fiction writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Saawariya, tells the story of Ranbir and Sakina. Ranbir Raj is a free spirited, idealist dreamer, who comes to a small town and joins as a singer in a club. One night, he notices a girl standing alone on a bridge holding an umbrella. In the beginning, Raj tries to talk with Sakina but she avoids him. Ranbir falls in love at first sight with Sakina. From the beginning, he realizes that Sakina is not happy for some reason. As Ranbir goes to tell her how he feels about her, Sakina tells Ranbir that she is in love with Imaan (Salman Khan), who left her one year ago and promised to meet on that bridge where she and Ranbir met for the first time. Despite her feeling for Imaan, Ranbir and Sakina gradually come close. Then suddenly, Imaan returns and ignoring her feelings for Raj, Sakina goes away with Imaan.

Some interesting facts about Saawariya:

Saawariya is one of those first wave of movies where Hollywood studios and Bollywood filmmakers joined hands together. India is a big country and a very lucrative market for movies. However, domestic movie makers control majority of the market. Hollywood is the best movie making industry in the world, but in India, they do not have a major market share and the main reason is the difference of culture. For this reason, major Hollywood studios are forming joint ventures with domestic movie makers and Saawariya is the result of one such joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sanjay Leela Bhansali productions. Sony Pictures made a huge investment in the film but they did not interfere with the script or making of the movie. Sanjay Leela Bhansali was left alone and given full control in the making of the movie.

In Saawariya, you will notice two things: the story takes place at night and the beautiful movie set. The whole story takes place in an outdoor location designed indoor. The movie set was designed by Omung Kumar. Omung started his career as an advertising professional in Hindustan Thompson Associates. After quitting Hindustan Thompson Associates, Omung and his wife formed a company Opus Planet Construction Entertainment which was later renamed Blue Lotus Productions.

Omung used to work with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s sister, Bela. He designed sets for the music videos of Adnan Sami. It was Bela, who introduced Omung to Sanjay Leela Bhansali. His first work with Sanjay was designing the set of Black. In the beginning, Sanjay was bit skeptical but he was impressed with Omung’s work and Black was followed by Saawariya.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his perfectionist attitude in the film industry. Even the smallest details do not escape his eyes. For this movie, Sanjay told Omung to create a utopian town. It looks western but everything has an Indian touch. Omung built 9-10 sets for the movie. Each of the sets took 25 days to build. More than 250 people worked to build the sets. The entire set was built in two years. When people hard that they built an entire town for the movie they did not believe it. Sanjay then took the photographers and jury members to show the set.

Some interesting facts about Sonam Kapoor:

Currently, Sonam Kapoor is working with Abhishek Bachchan in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s semi-autobiographical movie, Dilli 6. It tells the story of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s life living in Chandni Chawk in Old Delhi.
Both Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra are very much protective about Sonam Kapoor. Sanjay Leela Bhansali always used to cover her and Rakeysh makes sure that she remains in salwar-kameez all the time.
For her character in Saawariya, she had to lose 30 lbs in three months. For this, she went to two health experts from Hyderadab-Shervir and his wife.
For her performance in Saawariya, Sonam Kapoor received Filmfare Awards 2008 in best female debut actress category. Her co-star Ranbir Kapoor also received Filmfare Awards 2008 in best debut actor category.
Designer Anuradha Vakil designed Sonam Kapoor’s costumes for Saawariya.
Sonam Kapoor sometimes used to cry in the set of Saawariya if the shots did not go well. At that Ranbir Kapoor used to calm her down.
Sonam and Ranbir Kapoor are childhood friends.
For her character in Saawariya, Sonam Kapoor had to work on her Urdu diction with Roshan Taneja.
Sonam Kapoor’s father came to know about her daughter acting in the movie after Sonam Kapoor started working in Saawariya.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali made Sonam Kapoor watch the movies of Meena Kumari, Nargis and Nutan before shooting for Saawariya.
Sonam Kapoor did not have any institutional training in acting. While working as an assistant for Sanjay Leela Bhansali, he told her to attentively watch the acting of Rani Mukherjee and Amitabh Bachchan in Black.
Sonam Kapoor has been a thin girl all her life but she gained weight when she went to study abroad.
Sonam Kapoor received training in Kathak and Latin dance.
When she was a child, Sonam Kapoor wanted to become teacher, a detective like Nancy Drew, then a dancer, writer and director.
Sonam Kapoor considers Sanjay Leela Bhansali as her Guru.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali believes that Sonam Kapoor is the vintage combination of Waheeda Rehman and Rekha.
Salman Khan is the sexiest actor according to Sonam Kapoor.
Both Sonam Kapoor’s parents are very conscious about physical fitness. Sunita Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor’s mother helped a lot to bring her in shape.
Sonam Kapoor comes from a filmy family. Her father Anil Kapoor is a successful actor. Her uncle, Boney Kapoor, is a movie producer and director and his wife Sri Devi was one of the top actresses of Bollywood. Another uncle, Sanjay Kapoor, is also an actor.
Sonam Kapoor’s grand father, Surinder Kapoor, used to work as an assistant in director K. Asif’s Mughal-E-Azam. It took more than ten years to finish
Mughal-E-Azam. Surinder Kapoor joined as a bachelor. By the time, the movie was finished, he was married and fathered three children: Boney Kapoor, Sanjay Kpaoor, and Anil Kapoor.
Few days ago, Surinder Kapoor passed away which was a very big loss for Sonam Kapoor. She was very upset that she was not near him at the time of his death.
Sonam Kapoor is the eldest of the three children of Anil Kapoor.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali often calls Sonam Kapoor by ‘Sona bacha.’