Post the Hema Malani and Sridevi Era; the shelf life of an actress is about a decade. Kareena Kapoor Khan has surpassed many of her contemporaries to sustain a 15-year long career as a top-leading lady. Actresses that started their careers in the beginning of the new millennium have either settled down after marriage, faded away, or were left behind in the rat race. In her long journey, she has been pitted against many of her contemporaries, but those names keep changing and Kareena’s is still being compared to actresses that started years after her.
Mahesh Bhatt once famously said, “The Barbie doll, pop icon Madonna, Amitabh Bachchan & Vishesh films secret to longevity & relevance: Constant Reinvention.”
Is it perhaps Kareena Kapoor Khan’s ability to constantly reinvent herself that has helped her sustain an almost two decade long career? Lets Analyze.
After starting off with a de-glam role in Refugee, Kareena played the ultimate glamour doll in the famously popular character of Poo in Karan Johar’s Kabhie Kushi Kabhie Gham. Both the film and role met with great success and Kareena chose to play similar Pooh-archetypes in some unsuccessful films such as Mein Prem Ki Diwani Hoon and Mujhse Dosti Karoge. Critics described her performances as variations of Pooh.
This is when Kareena took a moment to reinvent herself and prove her versatility as an actress in films such as Chameli, Yuva, Dev, and Omkara. While still giving us the occasional glam quotient via “Yeh Mera Dil” in Don. All while experimenting with her looks for each character. She also won awards for many of her performances during this phase.
Post 2007, Kareena again played a loud-mouthed character Geet in the lovable Jab We Met, but this time audiences and critics lauded her performance because she found a balance and reinvented what she was originally known for albeit some maturity.
Then came the size-zero look, which in itself was a complete metamorphoses and reinvention of her looks and body which she showed off in the famous green Bikini. The transformation led to thousands of Indian women trying to adapt the same look.
Since then Kareena has started in some of the biggest blockbusters like 3 Idiots, Golmaal series, and Body Guard while simulationusly doing films like Kurbaan, Heroine, and Taalash. Also, she has embraced her curves again.
Now into her 15th year of a leading-lady, Kareena has starred in blockbusters such as Singham Returns and Bhajrangi Bhaijaan and is reinventing herself again in performance oriented roles such as Udta Punjab and R. Balki’s next where she plays a career oriented woman and Arjun Kapoor plays her stay at home husband.
In a career where she has played both Anil Kapoor’s wife and now his nephew Arjun Kapoor’s wife, one must ask themselves that how has Kareena managed to stay relevant all these years.
Has she truly mastered the art of reinvention?