Kareena Kapoor spoke about Karisma Kapoor’s struggles in the 1990s and how she resurrected the Kapoor name as no one from the Kapoor family was working at that time.

Kareena Kapoor is the granddaughter of Raj Kapoor, who was one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, but Kareena and her sister Karisma, who was a superstar in the 1990s, had to face their own struggles before they made it big in the movies. In a recent interview, Kareena spoke about how Karisma ‘resurrected’ the family name and had to struggle from the age of 15. Kareena said that while her father, actor-director Randhir Kapoor, was supportive, he made it very clear that he wouldn’t be calling people to ask for favours for her daughter.

In a conversation with The Week, Kareena said that the early years were difficult for Karisma “because it was like the first time anybody from the family… because my mum (Babita) had to stop working, Neetu (Kapoor) aunty stopped working but I think that was also a brink of… not rebellion… but just a brink of where I think our parents’ mindset was also changing.” It was famously known that women from the Kapoor family did not work in the movies as none of Raj Kapoor’s daughters became a part of film, even though all three of his sons were actors. Their daughters-in-law also stopped working in the movies after getting married and their daughters were also never seen in the movies. Karisma was the first woman from the Kapoor clan to work in the film business.

Kareena said that when Karisma started her journey in the movies “a lot of our family members were more accepting.” She added, “My mum was very supportive to my sister and she was like ‘I want you to do what you want to do and strangely at that time, my father, who people actually think, would be like ‘no, don’t do this’, he said, ‘if you want to do this, you must try on your own and figure it out. I am not going to help you in any which way’.”

Kareena said that her father Randhir Kapoor wasn’t working much at that time and told Karisma to “figure it out yourself.” She recalled her father saying that just because Karisma comes from the Kapoor clan, doesn’t mean that she would certainly find success at the movies. “It’s not that because you come from this legacy, there’s a 100 percent that you are going to be a big star, or I am going to help you become an actor, or get you a film, or produce a film, nothing of that sort was ever on the line. He pushed us to do it on our own. There was no ‘I will call so and so…’,” she recalled.

When asked about the conversations within the family when Karisma made her debut, Kareena said that Karisma “resurrected a home.” “My grandfather had passed away, my father had made one film, Henna. Of course, Chintu uncle was this illustrious superstar actor but apart from that no one was working at that time. So Karisma was actually the first female Kapoor who became this big sensation and star,” she shared. She also acknowledged that things got easier for her because by the time she made her debut, people were looking forward to the debut of Karisma’s sister.