Sonam Kapoor

Sonam Kapoor initially wanted to become a Director and a Writer. While she was studying in Singapore, her family friend, actress Rani Mukherjee visited her and even she was there for the shooting of her film Black. That is when Sonam told Rani her desire to work as a crew member on the film and on her father's recommendation Sanjay Leela Bhansali appointed her as his assistant. While she was assisting Bhansali, he told her that he wanted to cast her in his upcoming movie Saawariya which made her interested in acting. She was advised to lose weight for the lead role. She lost around 35 kg in two years. Saawariya was released in 2007 in which she played the role of a Muslim girl Sakina opposite Ranbir Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee. This was the first Indian feature film to be produced by Hollywood Studio, Sand only Pictures Entertainment. The film was a major failure both critically and commercially. In 2009, she played the role of an aspiring singer opposite Abhishek Bachchan in Delhi 6 directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The movie did not get box office success and got mixed reviews. In 2010, her first release was I Hate Luv Story opposite Imran Khan where she played the role of Simran Kaur an independent woman in one-sided love with her committed phobic co-worker which was her first commercial success. Later she appeared in Aisha which was an adaption of Jane Austen’s novel Emma and produced by her sister Rhea opposite Abhay Deol, Ira Dubey Amrita Puri and others. The film seemed to work well at the box office and Sonam performed very well. In 2011, she starred in Thank You a multi starrer comedy about three wives spying on their cheating husbands with Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Suniel Shetty, and Celina Jaitley. She also did Mausam opposite Shahid Kapoor as his love interest. Multistarrer Players along with Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Bobby Deol and two more new which was a remake of The Italian Job 2003, where she plays the role of a hacker and the role was originally written for Katrina Kaif. All three of the films failed terribly at the box office. In 2013, in Anand L Rai’s Raanjhanaa she portrayed Zoya Haider, a young Muslim student drawn into politics after the death of her Sikh lover opposite the south actor Dhanush which came to be a turning point in her career. Her role was appreciated by people and the film was a major success. She next starred in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, the biopic of athlete Milkha Singh, which was one of the biggest hits of the year and also won the Best Film award. In 2014, she appeared as a banker in Bewakoofiyan, a romantic comedy opposite Ayushmann Khurrana as her love interest along with Rishi Kapoor portraying her father’s role and in Khoobsurat which was an adaptation of a 1980 movie with the same name that starred the veteran actress Rekha, opposite the Pakistani actor Fawad Khan. Both the films didn't work well at the box office and got mixed reviews. In 2015, she played the role of Dolly, a runaway bride in Dolly ki Doli opposite Pulkit Samrat, Rajkumar Rao and Varun Sharma which got negative feedback. Later she appeared as Rajkumari Maithili Devi who was looking for love in Sooraj Barjatya’s Prem Ratan Dhan Payo opposite Salman Khan. The film got mixed reviews though it was one of the highest-grossing Bollywood movies of all time. In 2016, she starred in the biographical thriller film Neerja in which she played the role of the air hostess Neerja Bhanot who died while saving the lives of the people in the hijacked Pan AM flight 73 in 1986. Her performance in this movie is considered the best to date. The movie was a major success. Her upcoming project is Veere di Wedding with Kareena Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania.