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Janhvi Kapoor

Janhvi Kapoor (born 6 March 1997) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. Born to film actress Sridevi and producer Boney Kapoor, she made her acting debut in 2018 with the romantic drama Dhadak, which was a commercial success. Her subsequent theatrical releases were commercially unsuccessful, but she received nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for playing the titular aviator in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020) and a woman trapped in a freezer in Mili (2022).

Early life and background

Janhvi Kapoor was born on 6 March 1997. Her father is the film producer Boney Kapoor, the son of the late filmmaker Surinder Kapoor, and her mother is the actress Sridevi. She is the niece of film actors Anil and Sanjay Kapoor. Her younger sister, Khushi, is also an actress. She has two half siblings, Arjun (an actor) and Anshula Kapoor from her father's first marriage. Kapoor lost her mother at age 20, when she was found dead of an accidental drowning in Dubai.

Kapoor studied at Ecole Mondiale World School in Mumbai. Before making her film debut, she took an acting course from Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in California.

Career

Debut and female-led films (2018–2022)

Kapoor made her acting debut in 2018 with the Shashank Khaitan-directed romance Dhadak, co-starring Ishaan Khatter. A Hindi-language remake of the 2016 Marathi film Sairat, it featured her as a young upper-class girl whose life turns tragic after she elopes with a lower-class boy (played by Khatter). The film received predominantly negative reviews, but with a worldwide collection of ₹1.1 billion, it proved to be a commercial success. Writing for News18, Rajeev Masand criticised the film for removing caste-based references and deemed it inferior to the original, but felt Kapoor had "a fragility that makes her instantly endearing, and a soulful quality that makes it hard to take your eyes off her on screen". Conversely, Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost thought that she "lacks personality and delivers a colourless performance". She won the Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut.

Kapoor's next screen appearance came in 2020 when she starred in Zoya Akhtar's segment in the Netflix horror anthology film Ghost Stories. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express disliked the segments but added that the "only real surprise comes from Janhvi Kapoor in a solid, real act". She then took on the title role of aviator Gunjan Saxena in the biopic Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, which due to the COVID-19 pandemic could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Netflix. In preparation, she spent time with Saxena, underwent physical training, and learned the body language of an air force officer. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV described Kapoor's performance as "passably steady" while Rahul Desai of Film Companion was more appreciative of her "deceptively private performance" which he considered to be "pitch-perfect". She received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

In 2021, Kapoor played a dual role opposite Rajkummar Rao in the comedy horror film Roohi. The film was theatrically released after several delays due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The film and Kapoor's performance were panned by critics, and it performed poorly at the box-office. The following year, Kapoor starred in Good Luck Jerry, a remake of the 2018 Tamil film Kolamaavu Kokila, produced by Aanand L. Rai. It was released on the streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar. In her next film, Mili, a remake of the Malayalam film Helen, she played a young woman trapped in a freezer, which was played by Anna Ben in the original. Anupama Chopra was appreciative of the "sweetness and sincerity" she brought to the part but considered it much less accomplished than Ben's performance. It emerged as a box-office bomb. She received another Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.

2023–present

Kapoor starred opposite Varun Dhawan in Nitesh Tiwari's Bawaal (2023), a romantic drama about a feuding couple who learn about World War II as they travel across Europe. It was released digitally on Amazon Prime Video. The film received backlash for Holocaust trivialization. Writing for The New York Times, Beatrice Loayza criticised the lack of chemistry between the lead pair and dismissed Kapoor as "devoid of charisma". Leaf Arbuthnot of The Guardian also panned the film and their chemistry but was appreciative of her "still, mature performance".

Kapoor began 2024 opposite Rajkummar Rao in the sports drama Mr. & Mrs. Mahi, that follows a man attempting to vicariously fulfil his dreams of becoming a professional cricketer through the talent of his wife. Whilst filming cricketing sequences, Kapoor twice dislocated her shoulder. Writing for The Hindu, Shilajit Mishra thought that, despite appearing in nine films, Kapoor is yet to achieve "requisite ease in performance". Later in the year, she will portray a young Indian Foreign Service officer in the political thriller Ulajh and feature opposite N. T. Rama Rao Jr. in the Telugu action film Devara from filmmaker Koratala Siva. Kapoor will also continue her collaborations with Dharma Productions in the romantic comedy Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari, opposite Dhawan, and is set to star opposite Ram Charan in the tentatively titled Telugu film RC16.

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Kapoor has been placed in Rediff.com's "Best Actresses" list in 2020 and 2022. She is an endorser for several brands and products such as Nykaa, Drools and Aldo. Kapoor has frequently featured in the Times Of India's list of most desirable women, ranking 28th in 2018, 24th in 2019, and 18th in 2020.