3 min readMumbaiSep 24, 2025 11:13 AM IST
Back in 2003, Amrita Rao and Shahid Kapoor announced their arrival into the Hindi film industry with great fanfare. Their launch film, Ken Ghosh’s romantic drama Ishq Vishk, was an unexpected hit and catapulted both into stardom overnight. However, Amrita recalled how she was at the receiving end of industry politics despite her film’s success.
“I remember when Ishq Vishk released, Shahid and I had won the Face of the Year, the Superstar of Tomorrow, or some award like that. There was a photoshoot that was planned for the cover of that magazine. I was seated with the award. Shahid was standing behind me with the award. There were two superstar actresses who were seated on either side. There was another very, very famous actor and actress, again very, very famous. That was the layout of the cover,” explained Amrita.
“We were so happy and thrilled! I was like, ‘My first cover is going to be here!’ When I saw the cover, it was all photoshopped! I was moved to the background, and somebody else was in the foreground. That wasn’t what the cover was supposed to look like at all! Things like these have happened. And there must be many more that I wouldn’t even be aware of,” added Amrita on The Ranveer Show.
“I used to feel really bad earlier. I’d ask why it’s happening to me. But now, I can say politics is everywhere — in schools, colleges, and even in your society meetings! So, you just have to program yourself to deal with politics,” said Amrita, adding, “The world out there is always trying to pull you down.”
She recalled another instance of when she entered the film industry, she was chastised for being too thin. She said, “They never said it like it’s a compliment. Isn’t it a compliment?” Amrita recalled her aunt’s advice that she’d be mocked when she was thin, but when she put on weight, she was mocked for that too. Nobody complimented her when she had the ideal weight.
After Ishq Vishk, Amrita went on to star in blockbusters like Farah Khan’s Main Hoon Na (2004), Sooraj Barjatya’s Vivah (2006), and Subhash Kapoor’s Jolly LLB (2013). She reprised her role opposite Arshad Warsi in Kapoor’s courtroom comedy threequel Jolly LLB 3 this month. She married longtime boyfriend RJ Anmol in 2016 and gave birth to son Veer in 2020. She and her husband are also authors of the book Couple of Things and also run a YouTube channel with the same name.
Also Read — ‘I invested fee from Shahid Kapoor film in Reliance shares; a toilet brand helped me buy Bandra apartment’: Vishal Malhotra’s guide to surviving Bollywood
Story continues below this ad
Vishal Malhotra, who also made his film debut in a supporting role in Ishq Vishk, recently told Hindi Rush how him and Shahid were mobbed in a theatre on the day of release. “I still have a scar from people scratching you. It’s not a bad thing. They wanted you, a part of you. I still feel goosebumps and gratitude that I felt that, that God allowed me to feel that. Ishq Vishq was a huge turning point in my career,” he said.
Amrita Rao and Shahid Kapoor turned into overnight stars with Ishq Vishk.