Kareena Kapoor answers why Kapoor women never worked in the movies, says dad Randhir asked Karisma to ‘figure it out yourself’ for debut film

The Kapoors are often called the “first family” of Hindi cinema. Kareena’s great-grandfather, Prithviraj Kapoor, and her grandfather, Raj Kapoor, were both legendary actors. Rishi Kapoor’s wife, Neetu Kapoor, and Randhir Kapoor’s wife, Babita, quit acting when they got married. 

Kareena said that people said a lot of things back then and added, “I think the women in the Kapoor family chose not to work, that’s what I feel, and then obviously it was kind of like they don’t work, or maybe at that time it was like somebody said, ‘Don’t do it’ or if you come from that background, maybe you won’t be successful. A lot of people said, light-eyed actresses won’t make it. So I don’t know if that’s true or not, but obviously, look at Karisma and so many others after that. So I guess it was also quite a personal decision, maybe that our parents took or my mother took.”

When she was asked if there was something about the movie industry of the time that made them decide to quit movies, Kareena chose to differ and gave the example of her mother-in-law Sharmila Tagore who continued to be a successful actor after getting married and welcoming her children. Calling her a “game changer” in the 1960s, Kareena said that Sharmila chose to stick to her guns and worked in the movie business as long as she wanted to.