By Jagmohan Singh Barhok
On Her Birth Anniversary
Born & brought up in Delhi to Shiv Kapoor & Dimpy Kapoor, Vaani Kapoor graduated in Tourism and worked at Oberoi Hotels & Resorts Jaipur. She took part in many fashion shows including 2018 ‘Lakme Fashion Week’ to prove her versatility as a model.
Vaani who stands 5 foot 7 with a figure measuring 33-26-33 is an ebullient starlet with penchant nay passion for acting & making others rave about her. She has already appeared in skimpy dresses and has done kissing scenes with impunity in ‘Befikre’. She later featured in Akshay starrer “Bell Bottom”, shot at foreign locations, also featuring Huma Qureshi , Lara Dutta & Adil Hussain in significant roles. Vaani plays Akshay’s wife Radhika Malhotra while Lara Dutta enacts Indira Gandhi. The film “Bell Bottom” depicts real life events leading to hijacking of air-liners by Sikh separatists in 1980s. I had covered both the hijack cases for Nutan Kahaniyan, an Allahabad based monthly crime investigative magazine.
Kapoor who was in a supporting role in “Shudh Desi Romance”, also starring Parineeti Chopra & late Sushant Singh Rajput, later reportedly entered into a three-film contract with Yash Raj Films. The team also appeared on talk show ‘Comedy Nights with Kapil’ in 2013 for its promotion. The film’s success earned Vaani Filmfare Best Actress on Debut Award.
Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 and stated that ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’ caters to and reflects the mindset of a lot of youth in modern society. Khalid Mohammad of the Deccan Chronicle gave it 3 stars and wrote, “don’t miss it for Ms Chopra and for the feisty first half. Post-break, you can catch 40, even 400 winks in your seat”.
In 2016, Kapoor appeared in Aditya Chopra’s romantic drama “Befikre” opposite Ranveer Singh. The film, shot in Paris, was released on 9 December 2016 across 2900 screens including 2100 in India & 800 outside the country. It turned out to be an average grosser at the box office. Shubhra Gupta from The Indian Express gave the film 1.5 out of 5 stars and commented, “Befikre” ticks practically every single box which constitutes the Yashraj canon. It’s all there, and yet, ‘Befikre’ never quite rises above its shiny surface. In its best moments, it has sparkle, but those few and far between; in the rest, it stays bland and familiar”. Rajeev Masand also gave the film 1.5 out of 5 stars and stated, “What the film lacks is genuine feeling. Yes, even the frothiest of rom-coms need something real to keep you invested in its characters. I’m going with one-and-a-half out of five for Befikre. Aditya Chopra may have made one of Hindi cinema’s most enduring love stories, but this is a souffle that sinks like a stone”.
After a hiatus, she appeared in Aditya Chopra’s action thriller “War”, directed by Siddharth Anand starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff in the lead roles while Vaani Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana, Anupriya Goenka and Soni Razdan play supporting roles. Vaani Kapoor plays Naina Verma with whom Kabir Bedi has a liaison purposely to settle his score with someone. It turned out to be the highest-grossing film of the year 2019, and also one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all times. The film, produced with a budget of Indian rupee 170 crore, collected more than 470 crore on box office front.
Vaani Kapoor was too excited about “Shamshera” & “Chandigarh Kare Aashiqi” (2021), the latter shot in and around ‘The City Beautiful’ as Chandigarh is commonly known. Both the films failed to do well on the box office. Her recent release “Khel Khel Mein” (August 2024) also featuring Akshay Kumar & Taapsee Panuu, too, bombed at the Box office. The film, shot in Londona, was based on Italian movie “Perfect Strangers” starring Giuseppe Battiston, Anna Foglietta, Marco Giallini & Edoardo Leo.
