As Sonam Kapoor celebrates her birthday, it’s the perfect time to revisit some of the memorable characters that showcased her versatility, charm and screen presence. From heartwarming romances to inspiring dramas, Sonam has consistently delivered performances that resonate with audiences across generations. This birthday, take a look at five unforgettable roles that define her cinematic journey.
Veere Di Wedding: Four women who have known each other long enough to know exactly where to press. One wedding. A week of everything left unsaid finally getting said. Directed by Shashanka Ghosh and featuring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania, Veere Di Wedding is a film that refuses to make its women palatable and is much better for it. Sonam Kapoor plays Avni, a woman under enormous family pressure to get married who is simultaneously funny, frustrated and trying to figure out what she actually wants. In an ensemble where everyone holds their own, she brings a warmth and a very specific kind of comic timing that makes every scene she is in land exactly as it should.
Raanjhanaa: A boy from the narrow lanes of Varanasi falls in love with a girl who has long since moved on and built an entirely different life. Zoya knows exactly who she is and what she wants, and she never pretends otherwise, even when it costs her. Directed by Aanand L. Rai and co-starring Dhanush, Abhay Deol and Swara Bhaskar, the film is as much about obsession and consequence as it is about love. Sonam Kapoor plays Zoya with a cool, self-possessed authority that makes her one of the more complex female characters in the films of that era. She is not the object of the story. She is the point of it.
Streaming on ZEE5 Global
Prem Ratan Dhan Payo: A warm-hearted lookalike replaces a stern prince on the eve of his coronation, and a princess who had resigned herself to a difficult marriage slowly discovers that love may not be as out of reach as she believed. Directed by Sooraj Barjatya and co-starring Salman Khan, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Anupam Kher, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo is old-fashioned in the very best way, big, sincere and completely committed to its own emotion. Sonam Kapoor as Maithili is graceful and quietly layered, a woman who has learned to hold everything in and slowly, scene by scene, learns she does not have to.
Streaming on ZEE5 Global
Pad Man: A man in rural India becomes obsessed with creating an affordable sanitary pad for women and loses nearly everything in the process before the world catches up with what he was trying to do. Directed by R. Balki and co-starring Akshay Kumar and Radhika Apte, Pad Man is a film about the specific loneliness of being right too early. Sonam Kapoor plays Rhea, the young woman who sees the larger picture before almost anyone else does and fights to get it in front of the people who need to hear it. She brings a sharpness and purpose to the role that keeps the film grounded in something real even as the story grows larger.
Streaming on ZEE5 Global
Khoobsurat: A physiotherapist from a warm, chaotic middle-class family arrives at a royal household to treat the ailing king and immediately begins disrupting every rule in the place, without meaning to and then very much meaning to. Directed by Shashanka Ghosh and co-starring Fawad Khan, Kirron Kher and Ratna Pathak Shah, Khoobsurat is a film built entirely around Sonam Kapoor’s energy, and she carries it beautifully. As Mili, she is clumsy, loud, completely unimpressed by titles and impossible to ignore. In a film about two worlds colliding, she is the more interesting world by far.
Streaming on Netflix
