Arjun Rampal
Born	(1972-11-26) November 26, 1972 (age 39) Jabalpur, India
Residence	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Model, Actor, Producer
Years active	2001 – present
Spouse	Mehr Jesia (1998 - Present)

Arjun Rampal (Hindi: अर्जुन रामपाल), (born 26 November 1972), is an Indian film actor who appears in Bollywood films, as well as a former fashion model. He made his acting debut in Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat (2001). The film was a failure but Rampal was appreciated for his performance and received several awards for his work in the movie.

Rampal has established himself as one of the top movie stars of Bollywood through his performances in huge hits including Asambhav (2004), Vaada (2005), Don - The Chase Begins Again (2006), Om Shanti Om (2007), Rock On!! (2008), Housefull (2010), Raajneeti (2010) and Ra.One (2011)

Early life[link]

Arjun Rampal was born in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India on 26 November 1972 to a Punjabi family from Delhi. His father’s name is Amarjeet Rampal and his mother’s name is Gwen Rampal. Arjun along with his sister attended the Kodaikanal International School situated at Palani Hills in Tamil Nadu. His mother was a teacher in the school at the time. Arjun went on to complete his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Hindu College in Delhi.^[1] Actress Kim Sharma is his cousin.^[2]

Career[link]

2000s[link]

Rampal made his acting debut in Rajiv Rai's Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat (2001) opposite Suniel Shetty, Aftab Shivdasani and Kirti Reddy. The film was a failure at the box office but Rampal was critically appreciated.^[3] This established Rampal as a leading actor in the Indian film industry. He was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut and won the IIFA Award for Star Debut of the Year – Male and Screen Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male. His next release Ashok Mehta's Moksha was actually his first film but was released after Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat. Rampal was paired with famous actress Manisha Koirala in a lead role in Moksha. This film also flopped but Rampal received critical acclaim.^[4] His last release of the year was Ashu Trikha's Deewaanapan, in which Rampal was paired with Dia Mirza.

Rampal's first release of 2002 was Vipul Amrutlal Shah's Aankhen, in which Rampal starred opposite major names including Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Sushmita Sen and Paresh Rawal. He played the role of a blind person, which earned him critical acclaim. His next release was Kundan Shah's Dil Hai Tumhaara opposite Rekha, Preity Zinta, Mahima Chaudhry and Jimmy Shergill. The film was a flop but its soundtrack was very successful.

In 2003, Rampal played a lead role in Naresh Malhotra's Dil Ka Rishta opposite Aishwarya Rai but the film was a failure at the box office. Rampal's next role was in Khalid Mohammed's Tehzeeb opposite Urmila Matondkar. Rampal played a Muslim in the film. The film was a critical success but Rampal's role went unnoticed.

Rampal's career was becoming a failure as his films were consecutively flopping but his talent got him a lead role in Rajiv Rai's action thriller Asambhav. It was Rampal's second project with Rai as the two had previously worked together in Rampal's debut movie Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat. Rampal starred opposite Priyanka Chopra and played the role of an Indian commando Captain Aditya Arya. The film was entirely shot in Switzerland. The film was a flop but the movie was critically praised. However, Rampal's acting was not critically appreciated.^[5] Asambhav was Rampal's only release of 2004.

Rampal's first release of 2005 was Satish Kaushik's Vaada, in which he played a lead role opposite Ameesha Patel and Zayed Khan. The film was a flop. Rampal's next release was Vikram Bhatt's multi-starrer Elaan. The film managed to do well and became an average-grosser at the box office. Rampal's third release of the year was Yakeen, in which Rampal was paired in a lead role with Priyanka Chopra for the second time. This film was also a failure. His final release of the year was Ek Ajnabee opposite Amitabh Bachchan, in which Rampal starred in his first negative role.

In 2006, Rampal continued his career with Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai opposite Bobby Deol and Ameesha Patel. This film was also a flop, thus continuing his career as a failure. His next appearance was in the multi-starrer anthology Darna Zaroori Hai. Rampal's career finally started to become successful after years of failure when he played the supporting role of Jasjit in Don - The Chase Begins Again, a remake of the 1978 movie Don. The role had been played by Pran in the original Don. Don - The Chase Begins Again starred Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra in lead roles and the movie became a huge hit.

Rampal's last release of 2006 was I See You, in which Rampal played a lead role opposite newcomer Vipasha Agarwal. Rampal co-produced the movie with his wife Mehr Jesia. The movie was shot entirely in London, England. Like his past movies, I See You was also a failure at the box office and received poor reviews.

In 2007, Rampal starred in a negative role in Om Shanti Om opposite Shahrukh Khan and the debuting Deepika Padukone. The movie was a super-hit and became the top grossing movie of the year. It was Rampal's biggest hit in his career and earned him critical acclaim for his villainous role. He was nominated for the Apsara Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role.

In 2008, Rampal starred in Rituparno Ghosh's English-language arthouse film The Last Lear, alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Preity Zinta. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was received well at a number of other film festivals. Upon its theatrical release in India, Rampal got favourable reviews for his performance. Later that year, Rampal starred in Rock On!!, in which his role as the lead guitarist of the band was widely acclaimed, getting him several awards, including the IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor, National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award.^[6] This brought wider success and acclaim to Rampal.

Rampal's only release of 2009 was Deepak Tijori's Fox, in which he starred opposite Sunny Deol, Sagarika Ghatge and Udita Goswami. The film was a flop.

2010s[link]

Rampal's first release of 2010 was Sajid Khan's comedy film Housefull, in which he starred in a supporting role. The film received negative reviews but became a huge hit at the box office. Rampal's next release was Prakash Jha's multi-starrer Raajneeti. Rampal received critical acclaim for his supporting role of Prithvi in the movie. He was nominated for the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award and won the IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor, Zee Cine Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Male and Apsara Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His last release of the year was Siddharth Malhotra's We Are Family, in which he played a lead role opposite Kajol and Kareena Kapoor. It was an average grosser and Rampal's first successful movie that featured him in a lead role.

In 2011, Rampal starred in a negative role in Anubhav Sinha's Ra.One opposite Shahrukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor. Rampal played the title character. The movie became a successful film in India and overseas and received mixed reviews.^[7]

In 2012, Arjun Rampal, in association with Percept Limited launched Lost Festival. Lost' is a music festival driven by culture, tradition & soul. ^[8]

Personal life[link]

Arjun Rampal married former Miss India and supermodel Mehr Jesia and they have two daughters, Mahikaa, born on 17 January 2002 and Myra, born June 2005. He was first spotted by Rohit Bal in a night club who went on to showcase him in his collections and Arjun stayed with him before making a move to Mumbai.

Awards and nominations[link]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Bollywood portal
	Biography portal

• Arjun Rampal at the Internet Movie Database

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Arjun Rampal

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Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal (7 January 1922 – 20 May 2000) was a French flautist. He has been personally "credited with returning to the flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century."^[1]

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Born in Marseille,^{[nb 1]} the only child of Andrée (née Roggero) and flautist Joseph Rampal, Jean-Pierre Rampal became the first exponent of the solo flute in modern times to establish it on the international concert circuit, and to attract acclaim and large audiences comparable to those enjoyed by celebrity singers, pianists, and violinists. As it was unusual for solo flute to be featured widely in orchestral concerts, this was not easily done in the immediate years after World War II; however, Rampal's flair and presence—he was a big man to wield such a slim instrument—paved the way for the next generation of flautist superstars such as James Galway and Emmanuel Pahud.

Rampal was a player in the classical French flute tradition, although behind his superior technical facility lay the cavalier 'Latin' temperament of the Mediterranean south, rather than the more formal character of the elite north Parisian institutions. His father was taught by Hennebains, who also taught Rene le Roy and Marcel Moyse.^{[3][nb 2]} His playing style was characterised by a bright sound, a sonorous elegance of phrasing lit up by a rich palette of subtle tone colours. He exuded a dashing, lightly articulated virtuosity that thrilled audiences in his heyday, and his natural vibrato varied according to the emotion of the music he played. Additionally, Rampal was able to breathe in the middle of extended rapid passages without losing the sweep of his rendition. His upper register and wide dynamic range were particularly notable, and the lightness and crispness of his staccato articulation (his "détaché"), heard on his early recordings, was the envy of many.^{[nb 3]}

Rampal is best known for popularising the flute in the post–World War II years, recovering a vast number of flute compositions from the Baroque era, and spurring contemporary composers, such as Francis Poulenc, to create new works that have become modern standards in the flautist's repertoire.^{[citation needed]}

Beginnings[link]

Under the tutelage of his father, who was professor of flute at the Marseille Conservatoire and Principal Flute of the Marseille Symphony Orchestra, Rampal began playing the flute at the age of 12. He studied the Altès method at the Conservatoire, where he went on to win first prize in the school's annual flute competition in 1937 at age 16. This was also the year of his first public recital at the Salle Mazenod in Marseille. By then, Rampal was playing second flute alongside his father in the Orchestre des Concertes Classiques de Marseille; privately, they played duets together almost every day.^[2]

However, his remarkable career in music—which was to span more than half a century—began without the full encouragement of his parents. Rampal's mother and father encouraged him to become a doctor or surgeon, as they felt those professions were more reliable than becoming a professional musician. At the beginning of the Second World War, Rampal duly entered medical school in Marseille, studying there for three years. In 1943, authorities of the Nazi Occupation of France drafted him for forced labour in Germany. To avoid this, he fled to Paris, where it was easier to avoid detection, by frequently changing his lodgings.

While in Paris, Rampal auditioned for flute classes at the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Gaston Crunelle from January 1944. (Years later, he succeeded Crunelle as flute professor at the Conservatoire.) After just four months, Rampal's performance of Jolivet's Le Chant de Linos won him the coveted first prize in the conservatory's annual flute competition, an achievement that emulated that of his father Joseph in 1919.^{[5][nb 4]}

Post-war success[link]

In 1945, following the liberation of Paris, Rampal was invited by the composer Henri Tomasi—then conductor of the Orchestre National de France—to perform the demanding Flute Concerto by Jacques Ibert, written for Marcel Moyse in 1934, live on French National Radio. It launched his concert career overnight and was the first of many such broadcasts. In promoting the flute as a solo concert instrument at this time, Rampal acknowledged that he took his cue from Moyse. Moyse himself had enjoyed considerable popularity between the wars, although not on a truly international scale. Nevertheless, he was a role model in that he had "definitely established a tradition for the solo flute"; Moyse, Rampal said, "unlocked a door that I continued to push open."^[2]

With the war over, Rampal embarked on a series of performances: at first, within France; and then, in 1947, in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. Almost from the beginning, he was accompanied by pianist and harpsichordist Robert Veyron-Lacroix, whom he had met at the Paris Conservatoire in 1946.^{[nb 5]} By contrast with, as Rampal saw it, his own somewhat emotional Provençal temperament, Veyron-Lacroix was a more refined character (a "true upper class Parisian"), but each immediately found with the other a musical partnership in perfect balance. The appearance of this duo after the war has been described as a "complete novelty", allowing them to make a rapid impact on the music-going public in France and elsewhere.^[7] In March 1949, in the face of some scepticism, they hired the Salle Gaveau in Paris to perform what then seemed the radical idea of a recital programme made up solely of chamber music for flute. It was one of the first flute/piano recitals the city had seen, and caused a "sensation".^[8] The success encouraged Rampal to continue along that track. The recital was repeated the following year in Paris, and news of the young flute-player's virtuosity spread. Throughout the early 1950s, the duo made regular radio broadcasts and gave concerts within France and elsewhere in Europe. Their first international tour came in 1953: an island-hopping journey through Indonesia where ex-pat audiences received them warmly. From 1954 onwards came his first concerts in eastern Europe—most significantly in Prague, where he premiered Jindrich Feld's Flute Concerto in 1956. In the same year, he appeared in Canada—where, at the Menton festival, he played for the first time in concert with violinist Isaac Stern, who not only became a lifelong friend but also proved a considerable influence on Rampal's own approach to musical expression.^[9]

By now, Rampal had America in his sights, and on 14 February 1958 he and Veyron-Lacroix made their US debut with a recital of Poulenc, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Prokofiev in Washington, D.C. at the Library of Congress. Afterwards, Day Thorpe, music critic for the Washington Star, wrote: "Although I have heard many great flute players, the magic of Rampal still seems to be unique. In his hands, the flute is three or four music makers - dark and ominous, bright and pastoral, gay and salty, amorous and limpid. The virtuosity of the technique in rapid passages simply cannot be indicated in words."^[10] In 1959, Rampal gave his first important concert in New York City, at the Town Hall. Rampal's successful partnership with Veyron-Lacroix produced many award-winning recordings, notably their 1962 double LP of the complete Bach flute sonatas. They performed and toured together for some 35 years, until the early 1980s, when Veyron-Lacroix was forced to retire owing to ill-health. Rampal then formed a new and also long-running musical partnership with American pianist John Steele Ritter.

Even as he pursued his career as a soloist, Rampal remained a dedicated ensemble player throughout his life. In 1946, he and oboist Pierre Pierlot founded the Quintette a Vent Francais (French Wind Quintet), formed of a group of musical friends who had made their way through the war: Rampal, Pierlot, clarinettist Jacques Lancelot, bassoonist Paul Hongne, and horn-player Gilbert Coursier. Early in 1944 they had played together, broadcasting at night from a secret "cave" radio station at the Club d’essai in rue de Bec, Paris—a programme of music outlawed by the Nazis, including works with Jewish links by composers such as Hindemith, Schoenberg and Milhaud. The Quintet remained active until the 1960s.

Between 1955 and 1962, Rampal took up the post of Principal Flute at the Paris Opera, traditionally the most prestigious orchestral position open to a French flautist. Having been married in 1947 and now a father of two, the post offered him a regular income to offset the vagaries of the freelance life, even though his solo career as a recording artist was developing rapidly. That career was to take him away from the Paris Opera House for extended periods during his tenure there.

Recovering the Baroque[link]

Rampal's first commercial recording, made in 1946 for the Boite a Musique label in Montparnasse, Paris, was of Mozart's Flute Quartet in D, with the Trio Pasquier. Among composers, Mozart was to remain his principal love ("Mozart, it is true, is a god for me", he said in his autobiography),^[2] but Mozart by no means formed the cornerstone of Rampal's works. A key element in Rampal's success in the years immediately after World War II—aside from his evident ability—was his passion for the music of the Baroque era. Aside from a few works by Bach and Vivaldi, Baroque music was still largely unrecognised when Rampal started out. He was well aware that his determination to promote the flute as a prominent solo instrument required a wide and flexible repertoire to support the endeavour. Accordingly, he seems to have been clear in his own mind from the beginning about the importance, as a ready-made resource, of the so-called "Golden Age of the Flute", as the Baroque era had become known. Hundreds of concertos and chamber works written for the flute in the 18th century had fallen into obscurity, and he recognised that the sheer abundance of this early material might offer long-term possibilities for an aspiring soloist.

However, Rampal was not the first flute player to have taken an interest in the Baroque. The catalogue of flute music recorded on 78 rpm discs reveals that there was some prior taste for the music of Vivaldi, Telemann, Handel, Pergolesi, Scarlatti, Leclair, Loeillet, and others. Claude-Paul Taffanel, widely held to be the father of the French Flute School, had a liking for the music of the Baroque and was the first to revive interest in the flute sonatas of J.S. Bach and the flute concertos of Mozart.^[11] Taffanel's pupil Louis Fleury continued this interest through his Société des Concerts d’Autrefois and his performances with the Société Moderne des Instruments à Vent, and he also supervised the publication of a number of scores. Marcel Moyse, who took the flute to a new level of popularity between the First and Second World Wars, recorded pieces by Telemann, Schultze, and Couperin; of Bach's work, he recorded the Brandenburg concertos, the Suite No. 2 in B Minor for flute and orchestra, and the Trio Sonata for Flute, Violin, and Bass.^[12] Likewise, Rene le Roy, an equally celebrated soloist in Europe and America during the 1930s and 1940s, achieved success with performances of Baroque sonatas, and also made interpreting Bach's Partita in A minor for unaccompanied flute^[13] a personal speciality after the piece was rediscovered in 1917.^[14]

Rampal pursued his passion for the Baroque repertoire systematically and with extraordinary enthusiasm. Even before World War II, he had begun collecting obscure sheet music from the Baroque—making himself familiar with original publishers and catalogues, even though very few published editions were then available. He went on to research in libraries and archives in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Turin, and every other major city he performed in, and corresponded with others across the musical world. From original sources, he developed a detailed understanding of the Baroque style. He studied Quantz and his famous treatise On Playing The Flute (1752), and later acquired an original copy of it. For Rampal, the Baroque legacy was fuel to set alight a renewed interest in the flute, and it was his energy in pursuing this goal that set him apart from his forbears. Whereas Le Roy, Laurent and Barrère had all recorded two or three of Bach's flute sonatas between 1929 and 1939, between 1947 and 1950 Rampal recorded all of them for Boîte à Musique, and was beginning to regularly perform the complete Bach sonatas in recital, organising them across two evenings. Also, as early as 1950-51 he became the first to record all six of Vivaldi's Op.10 concertos, an exercise he was to repeat several times in later years.^[15]

Rampal had sensed that the time was right. In an interview with the New York Times, he offered one explanation for the appeal of Baroque music after the war: "With all this bad mess we had in Europe during the war, people were looking for something quieter, more structured, more well balanced than Romantic music."^[16] In the process of excavating forgotten works for performance, Rampal also had to discover new ways of playing that era's music. He applied his own bright tone and the liveliness and freedom of his style to the original texts, developing along the way a very individual approach to interpretation and, after the Baroque style, to improvised ornamentation.^{[nb 6]} Throughout, Rampal was never tempted to perform on a period instrument; the movement that championed "authentic" instruments for "true" performance of Baroque music had not yet emerged. Instead, he drew on the full range of effects offered by the modern flute to reveal fresh elegance and nuance to Baroque compositions. It was this modernity–the richness and clarity of his sound and the freedom and personality in his expression–combined with a sense of hidden treasures being shared that caught the attention of a wider musical public. "Enchantment is the best possible word to describe this concert", said one Canadian reviewer for Le Devoir in 1956; "Rampal's playing struck me through its variety, its flexibility, its colour and above all its liveliness."^[17] This striking effect can be heard on his earliest recordings, between 1946 and 1950. During this period, Rampal quickly benefited from the birth of the long-playing gramophone record. Before 1950, all of his recordings were on 78 rpm discs. After 1950, the 33⅓ rpm long-playing era allowed much greater freedom to accommodate the rate at which he was committing performances to record. At the same time, the birth of the television age ensured Rampal a wider prominence in France than any previous flute-player, through his many concert and recital appearances in the late 1950s and beyond.

Thus, even in the first 15 years after the war, Rampal covered a huge amount of ground in this enterprise, and the post-war rediscovery of the Baroque became inseparable from Rampal's own developing solo career. A great deal of the material Rampal performed and recorded he also published, supervising sheet music collections in both Europe and the US. In his autobiography, he remarked that he had felt it part of his "duty" to expand as much as possible the repertoire for fellow flautists as well as for himself. In trying to keep the flute before the musical public in the widest sense possible, Rampal also played in as many groups and combinations as he could, a habit he continued for the rest of his life.^[18]

In 1952 he founded the Ensemble Baroque de Paris, featuring Rampal himself, Veyron-Lacroix, Pierlot, Hongne, and violinist Robert Gendre. Remaining together over almost three decades, the ensemble proved one of the first musical groups to bring to light the chamber repertoire of the 18th century.

Collaborations[link]

Through his recordings for labels including L'Oiseau-Lyre and, from the mid-1950s, Erato, Rampal continued to give new currency to many "lost" concertos by Italian composers such as Tartini, Cimarosa, Sammartini, and Pergolesi (often collaborating with Claudio Scimone and I Solisti Veneti), and French composers including Devienne, Leclair, and Loeillet, as well as other works from the Potsdam court of the flute-playing king Frederick the Great. His 1955 collaboration in Prague with Czech flautist, composer, and conductor Milan Munclinger resulted in an award-winning recording of flute concertos by Benda and Richter. In 1956, with Louis Froment, he recorded concertos in A minor and G major by C.P.E. Bach. Other composers of the era, such as Haydn, Handel, Stamitz, and Quantz, also figured significantly in his repertoire. He was open to experimentation; once, through laborious over-dubbing, he played all five parts in an early recording of a flute quintet by Boismortier. Rampal was the first flautist to record most, if not all, of the flute works by Bach, Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, and other composers who now comprise the core repertoire for flute players.

Despite his commitment to the Baroque, Rampal extended his researches into the Classical and Romantic eras in order to establish some continuity to the repertoire of his instrument. For example, his first "recital" LP, released in both America and Europe, featured music from Bach, Beethoven, Hindemith, Honegger, and Dukas.^[19] Aside from recording familiar composers such as Mozart, Schumann, and Schubert, Rampal also helped bring the works of composers such as Reinecke, Gianella, and Mercadante back into view. Additionally, while the Baroque had provided the platform for his revival of the flute, Rampal was well aware that the health of its continuing appeal depended on him and others displaying the whole range of the repertoire. From the start, his recital programmes included modern compositions as well. Rampal gave the first Western performance of Prokofiev's Sonata for Flute and Piano in D, which in the 1940s was in danger of being co-opted for the violin, but which has since become established as a flute favourite. Over his career, he performed all of the flute masterpieces that were composed in the first half of the 20th century, including works by Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Ibert, Milhaud, Martinů, Hindemith, Honegger, Dukas, Françaix, Damase, Kuhlau, and Feld.

By the early 1960s, Rampal was established as the first truly international modern flute virtuoso, and was performing with many of the world's leading orchestras. Just before his first recital tour of Australia in 1966, a leading newspaper^[which?] said: "he is to the flute what Rubinstein is to the piano and Oistrakh to the violin".^{[attribution needed]} Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Rampal's publicity in America continued to hail his celebrity; one newspaper^[which?] hailed him as "the prince of flute-players".^{[attribution needed]}

As a chamber musician, he continued to collaborate with numerous other soloists, forming particularly close and long-lasting collaborations with violinist Isaac Stern and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. A number of composers wrote especially for Rampal, including Henri Tomasi (Sonatine pour flûte seule, 1949), Jean Françaix (Divertimento, 1953), Andre Jolivet (Concerto, 1949), Jindřich Feld (Sonata, 1957), and Jean Martinon (Sonatine). Others included Jean Rivier, Antoine Tisne, Serge Nigg, Charles Chaynes, and Maurice Ohana. In addition, he premiered a large number of works by contemporary composers such as Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Ezra Laderman, David Diamond, and Krzysztof Penderecki. His transcribing in 1968, at the composer's own suggestion, of Aram Khatchaturian's Violin Concerto (recorded 1970) showed Rampal's willingness to broaden the flute repertoire further by borrowing from other instruments. In 1978, the Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness wrote his Symphony No. 36, which contained a melodic flute part tailored especially for Rampal, who gave the premiere performance of the work in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra.

The only piece dedicated to Rampal that he never publicly performed was the Sonatine (1946) by Pierre Boulez, which—with its spiky, explosive figures and extravagant use of flutter-tonguing—he found too abstract for his taste.^{[nb 7]} Elsewhere, when sometimes criticised for not playing enough contemporary avant-garde work—"Avant garde of what?" he would ask^{[attribution needed]}—Rampal confirmed his aversion to music that looked "like the blueprints for a plumber... pieces that go tweak, twonk, thump, snort—this doesn't inspire me."^[8]

One piece in particular, written with Rampal in mind, has since become a modern standard in the essential flute repertoire. Rampal's compatriot Francis Poulenc was commissioned by the Coolidge Foundation of America in 1957 to write a new flute piece. The composer consulted with Rampal regularly on shaping the flute part, and the result, in Rampal's own words, is "a pearl of the flute literature".^{[attribution needed]} The official world premiere of Poulenc's Sonata for Flute and Piano was performed on 17 June 1957 by Rampal, accompanied by the composer, at the Strasbourg Festival. Unofficially, however, they had performed it a day or two earlier to a distinguished audience of one: the pianist Artur Rubinstein, a friend of Poulenc's, was unable to stay in Strasbourg for the evening of the concert itself, and so the duo obliged him with a private performance. Poulenc was then unable to travel to Washington for the US premiere on 14 February 1958, so Veyron-Lacroix took his place, and the sonata became a key offering in Rampal's US recital debut, helping launch his long-lived trans-Atlantic career.

[edit] L'homme à la flûte d'or

As the owner of the only solid gold flute (No. 1375) made, in 1869, by the great French craftsman Louis Lot, Rampal was the first internationally renowned "Man With the Golden Flute". Rumours of the survival of the 18-carat gold Lot had been circulating in France for years before the Second World War, but no one knew where the piece had gone. In 1948, almost by chance, Rampal acquired the instrument from an antiques dealer who had wanted to melt the instrument down for the gold—evidently unaware that he was in possession of the flute equivalent of a Stradivarius.^{[nb 8]} With family help, Rampal raised enough funds to rescue the precious instrument, and went on to perform and record with it for 11 years.^{[nb 9]} In interviews, Rampal said he thought the gold—by contrast with silver—made his naturally bright, sparkling sound "a little darker; the colour is a little warmer, I like it".^[9] Only in 1958, when presented during his debut US tour with a 14-carat gold instrument made after the Lot pattern by the William S. Haynes Flute Company of Boston, did Rampal stop using the 1869 original. After one final recording in London,^{[nb 10]} he consigned the golden Lot to the safety of a bank vault in France, and thereafter made the Haynes his concert instrument of choice.

Celebrity[link]

At Boston Pops show in 1977

Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Rampal remained especially popular in the US and Japan (where he had first toured in 1964). He toured America annually, performing at every leading venue—from Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall to the Hollywood Bowl^{[nb 11]}—and was a regular presence at the Mostly Mozart Festival at the Lincoln Center in New York. At his busiest, he performed between 150 and 200 concerts a year.^[21]

His range extended well beyond the orthodox: alongside the outpouring of classical recordings, he recorded Catalan and Scottish folk songs, Indian Music with sitarist Ravi Shankar, and, accompanied by the distinguished French harpist Lily Laskine, an album of Japanese folk melodies that was named album of the year in Japan, where he became adored by a new generation of budding flute-players. He also recorded Scott Joplin rags and Gershwin, and collaborated with French jazz pianist Claude Bolling. The Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano (1975), written by Bolling especially for Rampal, went to the top of the US Billboard charts and remained there for ten years. This raised his profile with the American public even further and led, in January 1981, to a TV appearance on Jim Henson's The Muppet Show, where he played "Lo, Hear the Gentle Lark" with Miss Piggy—and, suitably attired, "Ease on Down the Road" in a scene loosely based on the folktale of the Pied Piper.^[22]

Back on the classical stage, he was not afraid to be, as he put it, "a bit of a ham"; when performing Scott Joplin's Ragtime Dance and Stomp as a concert hall encore, for example, he provided extra percussion by stamping his feet rhythmically on stage in time to the music.^[23] Meanwhile, Bolling and Rampal came together again for Bolling's Picnic Suite (1980) with guitarist Alexander Lagoya, the Suite No. 2 for Flute and Jazz Piano (1987), and also to perform the instrumental theme song "Goodbye For Now" by Stephen Sondheim for Reds, Warren Beatty's Oscar-winning 1981 movie about the Communist revolution in Russia. His reputation as a celebrity soloist in America became such that, as Esquire reported, one critic dubbed him "the Alexander of the flute, with no new worlds to conquer."^[24] Following a performance of Mozart's Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra with the New York Philharmonic in 1976, New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg wrote "Mr. Rampal, with his effortless long line, his sweet and pure tone and his sensitive musicianship, is of course one of the great flutists in history."^[25] Throughout these years of mounting celebrity, Rampal continued to research and edit sheet-music editions of flute works for publishing houses including Georges Billaudot in Paris and the International Music Company in the US.

Achievement[link]

This section reads like an editorial or opinion piece and may require cleanup. Please improve this article by rewriting this section in an encyclopedic style to make it neutral in tone. Please see WP:No original research and WP:NOTOPINION for further details. (November 2010)

Of the primal appeal of the flute, Rampal once told the Chicago Tribune: "For me, the flute is really the sound of humanity, the sound of man flowing, completely free from his body almost without an intermediary[...] Playing the flute is not as direct as singing, but it's nearly the same." Through him, the full range of expressive powers of which the flute was capable were convincingly displayed to a wider public.^{[citation needed]}

Calling Rampal "an indisputably major artist", the New York Times said "Rampal's popularity was grounded in qualities that won him consistent praise from critics and musicians in the first decades of his career: solid musicianship, technical command, uncanny breath control, and a distinctive tone that eschewed Romantic richness and warm vibrato in favor of clarity, radiance, focus and a wide palette of colorings. Younger flutists assiduously studied and tried to copy his approaches to tonguing, fingering, embouchure (the position of the lips on the mouthpiece) and breathing."^[25]

Rampal remained unapologetic about his use of modern instruments, often wondering aloud whether Bach or Mozart would have tolerated the Baroque instrument ("little more than an awkward pipe")^{[attribution needed]} if they'd had its more perfectly tuned and better constructed modern equivalent at their disposal. In answer to the conundrum of Mozart's well-known remark that he couldn't bear the flute, for example, Rampal once said in an interview: "I don't think that statement by Mozart is to be taken too seriously. At the time he wrote it, Mozart had troubles with love and with money. His patron wasn't satisfied with the composer's first try and almost threw the composition back in Mozart's face. Remember, Mozart always wrote on commission, and at the time the flute was one of the instruments that most bad amateurs could play just a little. Mozart didn't detest the flute, he detested bad flautists."^{[attribution needed]}

Aside from his own recorded legacy, it was as much through his inspiration of other musicians that Rampal's contribution can be appreciated. Throughout the busiest years of his concert career, Rampal continued to find time to teach others, encouraging his students to listen not only to other flute players, but also to take inspiration from other great musical interpreters—be they pianists, violinists, or singers. He maintained a clear opinion about the right balance between "virtuosity" and aspiring to real musical expressiveness. "Of course", he said, "you have to master all the problems of technique to be free to express yourself through your instrument. You can have a big imagination and a big heart but you cannot express it without technique. But the first quality you must have to be good, to be inspiring, is the sound. Without the sound you cannot achieve anything. The tone, the sound, the sonorité is most important. Otherwise, with the fingers alone it is not enough... everyone these days has the fingers, the virtuosity... but the sound, the tone, that's not so easy."^[9]

Following the foundation of the Nice Summer Academy in 1959, Rampal held classes there annually until 1977. In 1969 he succeeded Gaston Crunelle as flute professor at the Paris Conservatoire, a position he held until 1981. When 21-year-old James Galway sought Rampal out in Paris in the early 1960s, Galway felt that he was going to meet "the master". As Galway says in his own autobiography, "For me, of course, it was simply a sensation to meet this great musician; like a fiddler meeting Heifetz."^[26] Rampal took Galway along to the Paris Opera to watch him play, and, said Galway, inspired him rather than taught him on the occasions they were together.^[26] William Bennett, too, has commented on Rampal's infectious enthusiasm for music-making: "his repute came more from his musical sparkle and the happy personality which radiated to the audience".^[27] Bennett had also sought Rampal out for lessons in Paris and was "instantly delighted with him—his humour, and his generosity—especially for his sharing my enthusiasm for other great players such as Moyse, Dufrene & Crunelle".^[27]

Rampal's principal American students include concert and recording artist Robert Stallman and Ransom Wilson,^[28] who has followed in his mentor's footsteps as conductor as well as flautist. Wilson said: "Rampal's greatest gift was his very spirit. Yes, he was one of the greatest flutists in history, but that achievement paled in comparison to his infectious joie de vivre. He had such musical passion that every audience member felt they were being given a private concert. He was magic!"^{[attribution needed]}

Family life[link]

Rampal and his harpist wife Françoise, née Bacqueryrisse,^{[nb 12]} were married on 7 June 1947. They made their home in Paris, living in the appropriately named Avenue Mozart. They have two children, Isabelle and Jean-Jacques. Each year they holidayed at their house on Corsica, where Jean-Pierre was able to indulge his passion for boating, fishing and photography. Well known for his love of good food, he liked to maintain a private rule wherever he went on tour that he would eat "only the cuisine of the country" he was in,^[9] and he looked forward to his post-concert dinners with relish. He developed a particular fondness for Japanese cuisine, and in 1981 wrote an introduction to The Book of Sushi written by a chef and a master sushi teacher.^[29] Rampal's autobiography Music, My Love appeared in 1989 (published by Random House).^[2]

Leaving the stage[link]

In later years, Rampal took up the conductor's baton with more frequency, but he continued to play well into his late 70s. The last work of importance dedicated to him was Krzysztof Penderecki's Flute Concerto, which he premiered in Switzerland in 1992, followed by its first performance in America at Lincoln Center. Rampal's last public recital was held at the Theatres des Champs-Élysées in Paris in March 1998, when he was 76; he performed works by Mozart, Beethoven, Czerny, Poulenc, and Franck. His last recording was made with the Pasquier Trio and flautist Claudi Arimany (trio and quartets by Mozart and Hoffmeister) in Paris in December 1999.^[30]

After Rampal died in Paris of heart failure in May 2000 at age 78, French President Jacques Chirac led the tributes, saying "his flute spoke to the heart. A light in the musical world has just flickered out."^{[attribution needed]} Isaac Stern, who had collaborated extensively with Rampal, recalled: "Working with him was pure pleasure, sheer joy, exuberance. He was one of the great musicians of our time, who really changed the world's perception of the flute as a solo instrument."^{[attribution needed]} Flautist Eugenia Zukerman observed: "He played with such a rich palette of color in a way that few people had done before and no one since. He had an ability to imbue sound with texture and clarity and emotional content. He was a dazzling virtuoso, but more than anything he was a supreme poet."^[31] The trustees and staff of Carnegie Hall in New York, where Rampal had performed 45 times over a 29-year period, hailed him as "one of the greatest flutists of the 20th Century and one of the greatest musical spirits of our time."^[25] The obituary in Le Monde claimed him to be no less than "L'inventeur de la flute" and celebrated all the musical characteristics that charmed audiences worldwide: "la sonorite sublime, la vivacite des phrases, la virtuosite laissaient une impression de bonheur, de joie a ses auditeurs".^[32]

James Galway, Rampal's globally known successor as "The Man with the Golden Flute", dedicated performances to him and recalled elsewhere how as a teenager he had been captivated by the sound of Rampal's "fluid technique" and "the beauty of his tone". For a young musician in the 1960s, he said, listening to Rampal's recordings "was a step into the stars as far as flute playing was concerned." He recalled also the generous encouragement Rampal gave him following their meetings in Paris. Of the passing of his "hero", Galway added: "He was the first major influence in my life and I am still grateful for everything he ever did for me. He was a great influence on the flute world and the musical world in general, bringing to ordinary folk through his music making a charm which enhanced their everyday lives."^[33]

At Rampal's funeral, fellow flautists played the Adagio from Boismortier's Second Flute Concerto in A Minor in recognition of his lifelong passion for Baroque music in general and Boismortier in particular.^[34]

Jean-Pierre Rampal is buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris.

Honours[link]

During his lifetime, Rampal had many honours bestowed upon him. His several Grand Prix du Disque from l'Académie Charles Cros included awards for his recording of Vivaldi's Op. 10 flute concertos (1954), his recording of concertos by Benda and Richter (1955) with the Chamber Orchestra of Prague (Milan Munclinger), and in 1976 the Grand Prix ad honorem du Président de la République for his overall recording career to date. He also received the "Réalité" Oscar du Premier Virtuose Francais (1964), the Edison Prize; the Prix Mondial du Disque; the 1978 Leonie Sonning Prize (Denmark), the 1980 Prix d’Honneur of the 13th Montreux World Recording Prize for all his recordings; and the Lotos Club Medal of Merit for his lifetime's achievement. In 1988, he was created President d’honneur of the French Flute Association "La Traversière", while in 1991 the National Flute Association of America gave him its inaugural Lifetime Achievement award.

State honours included being made Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (1966) and Officier de la Légion d’Honneur (1979). He was also made a Commandeur de l’Ordre National du Mérite (1982) and Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (1989). The City of Paris presented him with the Grande Médaille de la Ville Paris (1987), and in 1994 he received the Trophée des Arts from the Franco-American French Institute Alliance Française "for bridging French and American Cultures through his magnificent music".^[25] In 1994 the Ambassador of Japan presented Rampal with the Order du Tréasor Sacre, the highest distinction presented by the Japanese government, in recognition of having inspired a new generation of aspiring flute-players in that country. Strangely, with his enduring international fame assured, Rampal himself came to feel in later years that his own reputation within his native France had in some way diminished. It was "curious", he wrote in Le Monde in 1990, that no French music critics appeared to take any notice of his latest recordings: "Everything continues as if I didn't exist", he said; "This doesn't matter; I still play to full houses."^[35] But after his death, there was no shortage of public accolades to reflect the fact that he was indeed a source of national pride.

The Jean-Pierre Rampal Flute Competition, begun in his honour in 1980 and open to flautists of all nationalities born after 8 November 1971, is held tri-annually as part of the Concours internationaux de la Ville de Paris.

In June 2005, the Association Jean-Pierre Rampal was founded in France to perpetuate the study and appreciation of Rampal's contribution to the art of flute-playing. Among other projects, which include maintaining the Jean-Pierre Rampal Archive, the Association has collaborated in the re-release on the Premier Horizons label of a number of early Rampal performances on CD.

Discography[link]

Rampal's earliest recordings, 1946–1950, were on 78 rpm discs, many for the Parisian "Boite a Musique" label. With the opening of the 33 rpm LP era, he recorded for over 20 different labels between 1950 and 1970. Among the most significant of these was the French Erato label, founded in 1953, for whom he made approximately 100 recordings. In 1964 alone he recorded 17 albums, including three complete sets of flute pieces by Mozart, Handel, and Beethoven, in addition to concertos and other works. In 1979, he signed an exclusive contract with the CBS label (later Sony Classical), and he made over 60 albums for them.

This proliferation proved bewildering even to Rampal himself. In his autobiography he referred to his own "enormous discography, one that I can't even keep track of myself." One collector has made an attempt.^[36]

The compact disc set Jean-Pierre Rampal: Le premier virtuose moderne,^[37] issued in France in 2002 in collaboration with the Association Française de la Flûte, contains rare early performances from 78 rpm records made from 1946 to 1959.

Since then, the Association Jean-Pierre Rampal has re-issued a number of early recordings (on the Premier Horizons label and elsewhere), including his 1954 recording of the concerto by Feld, and a range of recordings he made between 1954 and 1966 with orchestras conducted by Karl Ristenpart, with whom he enjoyed a close collaboration. These include works by Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Tartini, Mozart, Arma, and Jolivet.

Rampal on TV and DVD[link]

Rampal made a great many television concert appearances in France from the late 1950s onwards, and later elsewhere—especially in America and Japan, where his reputation and following remained highest. As the first televised flute-player of any age, the medium contributed to his worldwide popularity in the decades after World War II. By comparison with the vast number of his CD and vinyl recordings in circulation, however, commercially available video and DVD footage of Rampal is relatively scarce, but collectors will be especially interested in four DVDs that contain live or recorded performances by him:

Jean-Pierre Rampal

EMI "Classic Archive" DVB 51089991; released 2007 in collaboration with the Association Jean-Pierre Rampal

This presents a collection of fine early performances filmed for French TV between 1958 and 1965 and still held in the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, the national French television archive. The earliest footage was broadcast on 17 March 1958, in the musical TV series Les Grandes Interprètes, soon after Rampal had returned from his successful debut tour of the US.

He begins with Handel's Sonata in F (HWV.369), then plays Debussy's The Little Shepherd and Ravel's Pièce en forme de habanera, both transcribed for flute and piano; and also Jolivet's Incantation C for unaccompanied flute. For the Handel, Debussy, and Ravel pieces, he is accompanied by the programme's presenter, pianist Bernard Gavoty. After a performance of Vivaldi's La Notte concerto in G minor RV 439 with the Collegium Musicum de Paris (broadcast 8 October 1963) comes a rendition of J.S. Bach's Suite in C minor BWV 997 (Paris, 16 April 1963) and the opening Allegro from Bach's Sonata in G minor BWV 1020 (Paris, broadcast 28 December 1964), both with Veyron-Lacroix at the harpsichord. More of this duo in recital at the Salle Gaveau in Paris (19 March 1964) appears from the TV series Les Jeunesses Musicales de France, featuring Couperin's Concert Royal No. 4, parts of J. S. Bach's Partita in A minor for solo flute and a sonata in B flat, K.15, by Mozart. The two concerto performances that complete the collection, both with the Orchestre Philharmonique de l'ORTF conducted by Rampal's long-time collaborator Louis de Froment, are of Mozart's Concerto No. 1 in G, K.313 (Paris, 5 May 1965), and the Ibert flute concerto (Paris, 8 April 1962). Of the Mozart concertos, Rampal said in a BBC Radio 4 interview that he did not like his 1966 recording with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra for ERATO because his playing was adversely affected by the uncomfortably high orchestral pitch insisted upon in Vienna. By contrast, he said he preferred his 1978 recording with the ‘Israel Symphony Orchestra’, even though it does not compare particularly well with the earlier TV performance.^[9]

Francis Poulenc and Friends

EMI 'Classic Archive' DVB 3102019

Rampal, playing the Poulenc flute sonata, is featured twice in this compilation, once with Poulenc himself in 1959 and again after the composer's death in 1963. The initial footage, preserved in the national French TV archive, is of a televised concert given by Poulenc in Paris at the Salle Gaveau in 1959. After a brief interview with the composer, Poulenc is joined on set by Rampal to perform the slow Cantilena from the flute Sonata. Rampal is seen again later in footage from a TV broadcast in which he plays the complete Flute Sonata, this time accompanied by Veyron-Lacroix. Additional performances of Poulenc's music are provided by artists including pianist Jacques Février, cellist Maurice Gendron, baritone Gabriel Bacquier, organist Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, soprano Denise Duval and others, together with the ORTF National Orchestra conducted by Georges Prêtre.

The Art of Jean-Pierre Rampal 1956-1966

Video Artists International

This is a two-volume DVD compilation featuring a series of Radio-Canada "Telecasts", broadcast and recorded during the years when Rampal was at the peak of his fame. In this rare footage, retrieved from the archives of CBC Montreal, Rampal is accompanied by Veyron-Lacroix and the McGill Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Brott. The first volume of this set of live broadcasts includes: Boccherini's Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D major (broadcast 1 March 1956); Haydn's Concerto for flute, harpsichord and string orchestra in F major, with Debussy's Syrinx for unaccompanied flute (broadcast March 28, 1957); Couperin's Concert Royal IV, with J. S. Bach's Sonata for flute and harpsichord in G minor, BWV 1020 (broadcast 27 December 1961). Volume two features Mozart's Flute Concerto No. 2 in D major, K.314, together with the Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major, K.313 (broadcast 24 February 1966).

Bolling: Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano

This features a live televised performance from 1976 of Claude Bolling's cross-over Suite (1973), written for Jean-Pierre Rampal (who plays a classical line to Bolling's jazz piano) and which by then had become a runaway success in the Billboard charts. Special guest double-bass player Max Hediguer is also featured.

Radio[link]

Apart from the many French Radio broadcasts of performances by Rampal, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a 45-minute profile, Rampal–"Prince of Flute Players", on 11 October 1983 in the 20:20–21:05 documentary slot. It contained extracts from an interview with Rampal himself, rare for the fact that Rampal gave very few interviews of any length in English. Rampal talks about his life and times and his approach to music-making. Also featured are interviews with English flautist William Bennett, American flautist and Rampal's sometimes-pupil Elena Duran, and violinist Isaac Stern—who was Rampal's long-time friend and musical collaborator. The Radio Times billing read: "Rampal–'Prince of Flute Players'. 'The Alexander of the flute with no new worlds to conquer…' American reviewers have sung the praises of the French flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal for over two decades. He's probably made more records than any other soloist, he's been given personal credit for making the flute the popular instrument it is today, yet in Britain he remains something of a neglected personality. Musician Andrew Marriner meets Jean-Pierre Rampal and, with help from William Bennett, Elena Duran, Isaac Stern and many recordings, presents a portrait of this celebrated flute player. Written and produced by Peter Griffiths." The programme is kept in the BBC Sound Archive, together with the two unedited original interviews with Rampal that it draws on (both recorded by Griffiths in London, in January 1981 and November 1982, at the Westbury Hotel, off Regent Street, where Rampal normally stayed).

Films[link]

L. Subramaniam: Violin From the Heart (1999), directed by Jean Henri Meunier, includes a scene of Rampal performing with L. Subramaniam.)

Rampal also makes an appearance in the 1977 educational film The Joy of Bach, playing his flute on a rooftop in France.

Notes[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Bel Canto Flute: The Rampal School (2003; Winzer Press) by Sheryl Cohen is a study of Rampal's methods and influence by an American flautist and teacher who studied with both Jean-Pierre Rampal and his fellow Marseille flautist Alain Marion. It is controversial to refer to the Marseilles group of flute players as a "school" distinct from the more widely acknowledged "French Flute School" in which Marcel Moyse and his predecessors Gaubert and Taffanel are central figures, but Cohen's study is an attempt to give Joseph Rampal, together with his son Jean-Pierre and others, some formal credit for an identifiable style of playing that became appreciated right around the musical world. As signature characteristics of this style, Cohen points in particular to a "poetic approach to expressive phrasing as a foundation to develop musical artistry, creative practice methods, breath control tone, articulation, and technique, all while searching to free the artist from within." The book, which draws on the contents of Jean-Pierre Rampal's masterclasses, includes 34 etudes, 33 solo movements and a set of daily studies used as teaching materials by both Rampal and by Marion. Sheryl Cohen, Professor Emerita of Music at the University of Alabama, has since extended her study by also running a Fellowship at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis in Provence entitled The Flute School of Marseille: The Rampal Lineage. The course chronicles "the development and influence of the school of Joseph Rampal on flute playing in the twentieth century" in order to "preserve the vast philosophical and pedagogical project mounted by the school, and establish Joseph Rampal's proper place in the history of the flute."

External links[link]

• L'Association Jean-Pierre Rampal
• Jean Pierre-Rampal Flute Competition The 8th Jean-Pierre Rampal International Flute Competition is to be held in Paris, from 23 September to 4 October 2008, as part of the Concours internationaux de la Ville de Paris.
• Fanfaire tributes to Rampal
• Photographs of Jean-Pierre Rampal at the Académie Internationale d'Eté in Nice, 1968 & 1970
• Photographs of Rampal in rehearsal with Aaron Copland at Saratoga Springs, New York, 1979
• Tributes to Rampal following his death including that from James Galway
• Jean-Pierre Rampal at Find a Grave

Kareena Kapoor
Kapoor at the launch of Gitanjali Group's jewellery collection, "Parineeta", June 2010
Born	(1980-09-21) 21 September 1980 (age 31) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Film actress, Model
Years active	2000–present
Partner	Saif Ali Khan (2007–present)
Signature
Website
www.kareenakapoor.me

Kareena Kapoor (pronounced [kəˈriːnaː kəˈpuːr]; born on 21 September 1980),^[1] often informally referred to as Bebo,^[2] is an Indian actress who appears in Bollywood films. During her career, Kapoor has been noted for her performances in a range of film genres; these include her work from contemporary romantic dramas to comedies, period films to major Bollywood productions, as well as less publicised independent films.^[3][4]

Born into a family where her parents, Randhir Kapoor and Babita, and elder sister Karisma were actors, Kapoor faced the media spotlight from a very young age, but did not make her acting debut until the 2000 film Refugee. Her melodrama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... became India's highest-grossing film in the overseas market in 2001, and is one of her biggest commercial successes to date.^[5] After receiving negative reviews for a series of repetitive roles, Kapoor accepted more demanding parts in order to avoid being typecast,^[6] and was consequently recognized by critics for displaying greater versatility as an actress.^[7][8] Her portrayal of a sex worker in Chameli (2004) proved to be the turning point in her career and she was later noted for her performances in the critically acclaimed projects Dev (2004) and Omkara (2006).^[6] She went on to play the lead female role in the Imtiaz Ali-directed romantic comedy Jab We Met (2007), for which she received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and the drama 3 Idiots (2009), which became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time.^[9]

Inspired by Bollywood actresses like Nargis and Meena Kumari, as well as her sister Karisma, Kapoor is well-recognized for her fashion style and her film roles, both of which have contributed in making her a style icon for young girls and women.^[10] Her contributions to the film industry have garnered her numerous achievements including six Filmfare Awards, among nine nominations,^[11] making her a leading actress of Hindi cinema.^[3][8] In addition to film acting, Kapoor is a regular stage performer and has launched her own clothing line in association with being the former brand ambassador for the retail chain Globus. Her off-screen life, including her relationship with actor Saif Ali Khan, is the subject of wide media coverage in India.^[7][12]

Early life and background[link]

Born in Mumbai, India, on 21 September 1980, into the Kapoor film family, Kapoor is the younger daughter of actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita (née Shivdasani); her elder sister Karisma, is also an actress. Often informally referred to as Bebo,^[2] she is the granddaughter of actor and filmmaker Raj Kapoor and niece of actor Rishi Kapoor.^[1] According to Kapoor, the name "Kareena" was derived from the book Anna Karenina, which her mother read while she was pregnant with her.^[13] She is of Punjabi descent from her father's side^[14] and on her mother's side she is Sindhi.^[15]

As a child, she had strong aspirations to become an actress, and was particularly inspired by watching the films of Bollywood actresses Nargis and Meena Kumari.^[16] Kapoor, who describes herself as a "very naughty [and] spoilt child", would regularly dress up in her mother's clothes and perform in front of the mirror.^[17] Despite her family background, her father disapproved of women entering the acting profession because he believed it conflicted with the traditional maternal duties and responsibility of women in the family.^[10] This led to a conflict between her parents and resulted in Kapoor's mother leaving the house with her daughters.^[18] After her parents' separation, she was raised in Lokhandwala by her mother, who worked several jobs to support her daughters until Karisma debuted as an actress in 1991.^[19] In an interview with Vir Sanghvi, Kapoor said that growing up in a household filled with women helped her become strong and independent.^[17] Following her parents' reconciliation in October 2007,^[18] Kapoor explained that they "were never officially divorced ... [but] ... liv[ed] separately."^[19] Asked about the relationship she shared with her father, Kapoor remarked, "My father is ... an important factor in my life. [Al]though we did not see him often in our initial years, we are a family now."^[19]

Kapoor attended Jamnabai Narsee School in Mumbai before progressing to Welham Girls Boarding School in Dehradun.^[16] She later recalled, "I learnt so much from being at Welham", and described her experience there as "one of the finest parts of my life".^[17] According to Kapoor, she was a good student and received first-class honours in all subjects except mathematics.^[17] Upon graduating from the boarding school, she studied commerce for two years at Mithibai College in Vile Parle, Mumbai, but later confessed that she only studied there because she was close to her family.^[16] Kapoor then registered for a three-month summer course in microcomputers at Harvard University in the United States.^[16] She later developed an interest in law and enrolled at the Government Law College in Churchgate; during this period she became immersed in law books and developed a long-lasting passion for reading.^[16] However, after completing one year at Churchgate, Kapoor realized that she was not inclined towards academics and returned to her initial plan to become an actress.^[17][20] She began training at an acting institute in Andheri, mentored by Kishore Namit Kapoor, a member of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).^[21]

Acting career[link]

2000–03: Debut and breakthrough[link]

Kapoor was initially scheduled to make her debut in Rakesh Roshan's Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000), opposite the director's son Hrithik Roshan.^[16] Several days into the filming, however, she abandoned the project and later explained that, "it was probably destined that I was not to be in the film. After all, it was a launch for his son. The whole focus was on the boy. Now I am glad I did not do the movie."^[16]

She made her debut later that year in J.P. Dutta's war drama Refugee, alongside Abhishek Bachchan. Set during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, the film centers on a man known simply as "Refugee", who illegally transports civilians back and forth across the Indo-Pakistani border. Kapoor portrayed Naaz, a Bangladeshi girl who falls in love with Refugee while illegally migrating to Pakistan with her family. Her performance was acclaimed by critics; Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama wrote that Kapoor "has a magnetic personality, which will make the viewer fall in love with her instantly. What surprises you is the ease with which she emotes the most difficult of scenes [...] There is no denying the fact that she is a natural performer who is very camera friendly."^[22] On the experience of making her first film, she described it as "...tough ... [but] also a great learning experience."^[16] Refugee became the fifth highest-grossing film in India in 2000,^[23] and Kapoor's performance earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.^[11]

In 2001, Kapoor appeared opposite Tusshar Kapoor in the romantic drama Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai, which became one of the highest earners of the year.^[24] A review in The Hindu, in regards to her performance, noted that she was "definitely the actress to watch out for, if her debut with Abhishek in Refugee and now Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai are any indication [...] Kareena shines throughout the flick, with the grace of a seasoned sizzler already."^[25] She next starred in Subhash Ghai's family drama Yaadein alongside Jackie Shroff and Hrithik Roshan. The drama centers on the character of Raj Singh Puri, a middle-class man, and his daughters' marriages. Kapoor played the part of the youngest daughter and Roshan's love interest, Isha Singh Puri. The film was met with negative reactions from reviewers and garnered poor box office returns.^[24] Kapoor then appeared in the Abbas-Mustan thriller Ajnabee. The feature was adapted from the 1992 American thriller film Consenting Adults,^[26] and was a moderate box office success in India.^[24]

Later in the year, she played the female lead in Santosh Sivan's period epic Asoka, a partly fictionalized account of the life of Ashoka the Great. It was widely screened across the United Kingdom and North America, and was also selected for screening at the Venice Film Festival and the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival.^[27] Featured opposite Shahrukh Khan who played Ashoka, Kapoor portrayed the character of Kaurwaki—a princess of Kalinga with whom Ashoka falls in love—and received her first Filmfare Best Actress nomination.^[11] While the film received generally positive reviews, Kapoor's performance received a mixed reaction from critics. Rediff.com concluded that "while a large portion of the first half is focused on the emerging romance between the runaway prince and herself and to their credit they do manage to whip up some on-screen chemistry, I am still unsure as to her acting abilities."^[28] Meanwhile, David Rooney from Variety wrote, "Kapoor plays ornately tattooed Kaurwaki as a lively mix of flirtatious coquette and feisty warrior woman, kind of like J.Lo meets Michelle Yeoh."^[29]

Her final release of 2001 was Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..., a melodrama, in which she featured as part of an ensemble cast that included Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Kajol and Hrithik Roshan. Directed by Karan Johar, the film was a major financial success and became India's second highest-grossing film of the year, as well as Kapoor's highest-grossing film up until then. It also performed well internationally and became one of the biggest Bollywood success of all time in the overseas market, earning over 1,000 million (US$19.95 million) worldwide.^[30] Kapoor's performance as "Poo", a good-natured but superficial girl, was described as "one of the main ... highlights of the film",^[31] and her portrayal earned her a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress nomination.^[11]

During 2002 and 2003, Kapoor experienced a setback in her career. She was in six films—Mujhse Dosti Karoge!, Jeena Sirf Merre Liye, Talaash: The Hunt Begins..., Khushi, Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon, and the four-hour war epic LOC Kargil—all of which proved critically and commercially unsuccessful in India.^[32][33] Kapoor's performances were often identified by critics as unoriginal and repetitive, with little inspiration.^[1] They expressed concern that she was becoming typecast, but these negative reviews were fundamental in motivating her to improve her integrity as an actress in subsequent years by accepting more demanding roles.^[6][34]

2004–06: Critical acclaim[link]

Following the negative period in Kapoor's career, 2004 marked the beginning of her work in more serious films, most of which would bring her critical acclaim rather than commercial success.^[6] Under the direction of Sudhir Mishra, Kapoor portrayed the role of a prostitute in Chameli. The film relates the story of a young prostitute who meets with a widowed investment banker (played by Rahul Bose), and follows the development of their relationship as they share their devastating life experiences. When Kapoor was initially offered the film, she refused it, stating that she wouldn't be comfortable playing the role.^[34] However, when the director again approached her a year later, she agreed to do the film and viewed it as an opportunity to show the range of her acting skills.^[34] To prepare for the role, she visited several of Mumbai's red-light areas at night to study the dress and mannerisms of sex workers.^[34] Upon release, the film and Kapoor's performance opened to predominantly positive reviews by critics, with the Indiatimes praising her "intuitive brilliance" and stating that she had exceeded all expectations.^[35] Another reviewer, however expressed concern that they found her portrayal unconvincing and excessively stereotypical, describing her as "sounding more like a teenager playacting than a brash, hardened streetwalker", and likening her mannerisms to that of a caricature.^[36] Nonetheless, Kapoor's portrayal of Chameli garnered her the Filmfare Special Performance Award^[11] and the film marked a significant turning point in her career as an actress.^[6]

She next co-starred in Mani Ratnam's bilingual project Yuva alongside Ajay Devgn, Abhishek Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi, Rani Mukerji and Esha Deol. The film, consisting of three chapters, tells the story of six individuals linked by a car accident. Kapoor is featured in the third chapter as Oberoi's love interest, Mira, a young witty woman. In a review published by The Times of India, film critic Subhash K Jha described her role as "fey and insubstantial", but further stated that "she turns these character traits to her own advantage to create a girl who is at once enigmatic and all-there, a bit like the film itself which is both mysterious and voluptuous".^[37] She then appeared alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Fardeen Khan in Govind Nihalani's critically acclaimed film Dev, which revolved around the 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots in the Indian state of Gujarat.^[38] Kapoor's role was that of a Muslim victim named Aaliya, modelled after Zaheera Sheikh, a key witness in Vadodara's Best Bakery case.^[38] It earned her a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress, as well as nominations for Best Actress at various award ceremonies.^[11] Taran Adarsh commented, "Kareena Kapoor is first-rate. Sporting a deglamorized look, the actress takes a giant leap with this film. Her scene with Amitabh Bachchan (when the latter asks for witnesses to come forward) is an example of superb acting."^[39]

Shortly afterwards, she was cast for the first time as a villain in the thriller Fida. The film follows the story of an on-line robbery and the Mumbai underworld with which her character Neha Mehra becomes involved. During the filming of Fida, Kapoor entered into a relationship with actor Shahid Kapoor, whom she later described as having "a major positive influence in my life."^[40] Although the film did not succeed at the box office,^[41] Kapoor garnered positive reviews for her performance, with some critics noting a distinct progression from her earlier roles.^[42] Her subsequent releases that year included Abbas-Mustan's thriller Aitraaz and Priyadarshan's comedy Hulchul, both of which did well at the Indian box office.^[41] Following the success of her last two releases, she was cast as the protagonist in the 2005 drama Bewafaa. The feature received mostly negative reviews and Kapoor's portrayal of Anjali Sahai, an unfaithful woman, was not well-received. Nikhat Kazmi of Indiatimes believed that in an effort to become a serious actress, Kapoor was embodying a maturer, more jaded character ahead of her years in Bewafaa which appeared peculiar for a young woman of her age.^[43] She then starred in Priyadarshan's romantic drama Kyon Ki, a film that relates the love story of a mentally ill patient, played by Salman Khan, and his physician, played by Kapoor. The film was a box office failure,^[44] though Kapoor's performance was generally enjoyed by critics, with the BBC reporting that she is "[...] a pure natural when it comes to acting."^[45]

In 2006, Kapoor appeared in three films. She first starred in the thriller 36 China Town followed by the comedy Chup Chup Ke; both films performed reasonably well.^[47] She next portrayed the Shakespearean character of Desdemona in Omkara, the Hindi adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello. Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, the film is a tragedy of sexual jealousy set against the backdrop of the political system in Uttar Pradesh.^[48] The film premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and was also selected for screening at the Cairo International Film Festival.^[48][49] Omkara was embraced by critics and Kapoor's portrayal earned her a fourth Filmfare Award and first Screen Award;^[11] her performance was later included in the 2010 issue of the "Top 80 Iconic Performances" by Filmfare.^[46] Kapoor herself considers her role in Omkara as a "new benchmark" in her career and has made comparisons between her portrayal of Dolly and her own evolving maturity as a woman.^[50]

Following Omkara, she stopped acting for a short time, as she felt that "nothing [was] challenging enough for me to say yes".^[50] In an interview with The Times of India, Kapoor commented, "In my initial years in the industry, I pushed myself to do a lot of work because I was greedy. I did some films – which I now regret – purely for the money. Today, I want to do selective films"; she later described this period as a way of "finally getting to do the things I have always wanted to do."^[51]

[edit] 2007–present: Jab We Met and other works

Kapoor returned to film as the female protagonist Geet Dhillon, a vivacious Sikh girl with a strong zest for life, in the Imtiaz Ali directed romantic comedy Jab We Met (2007). Featured opposite Shahid Kapoor, the film relates the story of two people with contrasting personalities who meet on a train and eventually fall in love. The film was received favourably by critics and became one of the year's most successful films, with a domestic box office of 303 million (US$6.04 million).^[52] Kapoor won several awards for her performance, including her second Screen Award as well as the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.^[11] Rajeev Masand from CNN-IBN noted, "Uninhibited and spontaneous, Kareena Kapoor is the soul of this picture, its biggest strength, as she brings alive her character with not just those smart lines, but with the kind of candor actors seldom invest in their work."^[53] While shooting for Jab We Met, Kapoor and Shahid ended their three-year relationship.^[54] Asked in Mumbai Mirror about their well-publicized break-up, she stated that "I hold him in utmost regard, and I hope one day we could be good friends. He is a great guy."^[19] During this period, speculation began to surface that she was dating actor Saif Ali Khan, her co-star in the film Tashan; Khan later confirmed their relationship to the media during Manish Malhotra's grand finale show at the 2007 Lakme Fashion Week.^[54]

The following year, she co-starred alongside Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan and Anil Kapoor in Vijay Krishna Acharya's action-thriller Tashan. Though a poll conducted by Bollywood Hungama named it as the most anticipated release of the year,^[55] the film eventually became a commercial and critical failure.^[7] She next provided her voice for the character of Laila, the love interest of a street dog named Romeo, in the Yash Raj Films and Walt Disney Pictures animated film Roadside Romeo. It was the second Bollywood film to receive a North American release by a Hollywood studio.^[56] In preparation for the role, Kapoor viewed several Hollywood animated films to analyse how actors delivered their dialogues.^[57] Kapoor then appeared in Rohit Shetty's comedy Golmaal Returns, the sequel to the 2006 film Golmaal: Fun Unlimited. A part of an ensemble cast that included Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi and Tusshar Kapoor, Kapoor played a distrustful wife who believed her husband to be unfaithful. The film received an ambivalent reception from critics and Kapoor herself received mixed reviews. The Indian Express believed the screenplay was unoriginal, concluding, "There is nothing particularly new about a suspicious wife keeping tabs on her husband, and there is nothing particularly new in the way Kareena plays it."^[58] Golmaal Returns was nonetheless a major financial success, with revenues of 793 million (US$15.82 million) internationally.^[30]

In 2009, Kapoor was cast as Simrita Rai opposite Akshay Kumar in Sabbir Khan's battle of the sexes comedy Kambakkht Ishq. Set in Los Angeles, California, it became the first Indian film in history to be shot within Universal Studios Hollywood, California, and featured several cameo appearances from Hollywood actors.^[59] The film earned over 840 million (US$16.76 million) worldwide, but was a critical failure.^[30] The Times of India described her performance as "a complete let-down" and further stated that "despite her haute-coutured look, micro minis [and] pencil heels, she comes across as a completely unconvincing supermodel cum surgeon."^[60] She next played the leading female role in the dramatic thriller Kurbaan, alongside Saif Ali Khan and Vivek Oberoi. The film, which marked the directorial debut of Rensil D'Silva, featured Kapoor in the role of Avantika Ahuja, a woman who is confined to house arrest after finding out that her husband is a terrorist. She described the film as "an emotionally draining experience", which did not let her disconnect from her character during shooting.^[61] Upon release, the film was critically embraced and Kapoor received her fourth Filmfare Best Actress nomination.^[11] According to Subhash K Jha, "Kurbaan belongs to Kareena Kapoor. In her most consistently-pitched performance to date she pulls out all stops to play a betrayed wife with splendid sensitivity. Kareena accommodates her radiant beauty into an utterly credible character and performance. At her best, Kareena is incomparable. She proves it in Kurbaan."^[62]

Her final release of the year was Rajkumar Hirani's drama 3 Idiots, a film loosely based on the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat.^[63] Co-starring alongside Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi, Kapoor starred as Pia, an independent-minded medical student and Khan's love interest. On acting alongside Khan, Kapoor revealed that it was "a dream come true" and further stated that her journey as an actress was "finally complete".^[64] The feature received much critical devotion and emerged as the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time, grossing 2,026 million (US$40.42 million) at the Indian box office.^[9] It also did well internationally and earned over 1,080 million (US$21.55 million), the biggest Bollywood success of all time in the overseas market.^[5][65] The Deccan Herald opined that Kapoor "brings a dollop of sunshine and feminine grace to an otherwise masculine tale. She is so spunky and spontaneous you wish there was room for more of her."^[66] During the 55th Filmfare Awards, Kapoor received another Best Actress nomination for her role.^[11]

In 2010, she appeared in the romantic comedy Milenge Milenge, a production that had been delayed since 2005.^[67] The feature garnered negative reviews and poor box office returns. Kapoor's role was small and was not well-received.^[67] She next took the supporting role of the career-oriented Shreya Arora in We Are Family, the Hindi adaptation of the 1998 Hollywood release Stepmom. Prior to working on the project, Kapoor explained that she did not want to watch the original film in an attempt to "interpret the role...in my own style". Reaction to the film was mostly lukewarm, but Kapoor's performance drew positive reviews and ultimately won her the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress;^[11] Priyanka Roy of The Telegraph wrote: Kapoor "breathes life and a new-found maturity into what is largely a uni-dimensional character lacking depth."^[68] At the end of the year, she reunited with director Rohit Shetty for his sequel to the 2008 release Golmaal Returns. Like its predecessor, the project was met with mixed reactions from reviewers, though became the most successful entry in the Golmaal film series, earning more than 1,000 million (US$19.95 million) domestically.^[69] For her portrayal of the tomboy Daboo, Kapoor went on to receive several Best Actress nominations at a number of award ceremonies, including Filmfare.^[11]

Kapoor received further success in 2011 by starring as the love interest of Salman Khan in the romantic drama Bodyguard, a remake of the 2010 Malayalam film of the same name. The project opened to mixed reviews upon release, though became the most popular film of the year, with a domestic total of 1,410 million (US$28.13 million). In a review published by Mint, film critic Sanjukta Sharma dismissed Kapoor's role as the "sacrificial, ornamental [and] submissive female" whilst MiD DAY referred to her as "bright", arguing that she "actually manages to bring her caricature of a role alive."^[70][71] She next appeared in Anubhav Sinha's science fiction film Ra.One, alongside Shahrukh Khan. The film, which follows the story of a London-based videogame designer who creates the strongest villain—only to later realize that it has escaped from the game, saw the use of several new visual effects never seen before in the cinematic history of Bollywood, and became the most expensive Hindi film ever produced.^[72] With revenues of over 2,000 million (US$39.9 million) worldwide, Ra.One went on to become one of the highest earners of the year and Kapoor's fourth major success in three consecutive years.^[73]

She followed it by playing the female lead in Shakun Batra's directorial debut Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (2012), alongside Imran Khan. Produced by Dharma Productions, the romantic comedy is set in Las Vegas and tells the story of two strangers who accidentally get married one night after getting drunk. Kapoor essayed the role of the quick-witted hairstylist Riana Braganza. In an interview with The Times of India, Kapoor explained that she was drawn to the relatable qualities of her character: "Riana knows what she is doing. Even though she does not have a house or a job, she is a positive person... very similar to the way I am."^[74] Upon release, the film was greeted with positive reviews and was an economic success, earning over 550 million (US$10.97 million) internationally. The Hollywood Reporter found her "endearingly natural" while Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com asserted that "after doing ornamental roles in films like Bodyguard and Ra.One, it is nice to see the spunky actress in her element again since Jab We Met. Though vivacious, her Riana isn't a child-woman like Geet but a free-spirited, unflappable adult armed with plucky impulses and scrumptious smile that helps Rahul come-of-age and Ek Main Au Ekk Tu worth a helping."^[75][76]

Following the completion of Sriram Raghavan's Agent Vinod, Kapoor began working on Madhur Bhandarkar's drama Heroine in November 2011.^[77] Originally the first choice for her role, she was initially not able to take on the project due to a scheduling conflict with Bodyguard and Ra.One, and was later replaced by Aishwarya Rai.^[77] Several days after production began, Rai left the film due to her pregnancy, enabling Kapoor to rejoin the film.

Off-screen work[link]

Stage performances[link]

Kapoor performing at Temptation Reloaded 2008

Kapoor has been part of several stage shows and world tours since 2002. Her first world tour, the Heartthrobs: Live in Concert, was successfully performed across the United States and Canada alongside Hrithik Roshan, Karisma Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, and Aftab Shivdasani.^[78] At the end of the year, she performed alongside several Bollywood stars at the Kings Park Stadium in Durban, South Africa, for the show Now or Never.^[79] Four years later, Kapoor took part in the Rockstars Concert world tour, along with Salman Khan, Zayed Khan, John Abraham, Shahid Kapoor, Esha Deol and Mallika Sherawat. The concert was showcased in 19 cities across the United Kingdom, United States and Canada, and went on to become a success.^[80] In 2008, Kapoor participated in Shahrukh Khan's Temptation Reloaded 2008, a series of concerts showcased across several different countries. The show, which also featured Arjun Rampal, Katrina Kaif, Ganesh Hegde, Javed Ali and Anusha Dandekar, took place at the Ahoy Rotterdam venue in Rotterdam, Netherlands.^[81] Several months later, she again joined Khan, Rampal and Kaif to perform for 15,000 spectators at Dubai's Festival City Arena.^[82]