Quarter Century | Kareena Kapoor and Bollywood’s OG Main Character

A few weeks ago, a friend on a school WhatsApp group went on a hilarious tirade. She was expressing her reluctance to attend a dreaded work meeting. She asked us all to wish her good luck as she headed into it. At least three people in the group responded with the same gif in unison: Kareena Kapoor as Poo from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (K3G) sarcastically saying, “Tell me how it was!” The timing was incredible. This made me aware of how I often express my disapproval of a poorly made movie, song, photograph, outfit — just about anything — with a high-pitched “Minus!”

Is there an appropriate Poo response for every situation? I did a quick Google search to find out. There’s an advertisement in which the actor reprises the character to rate hotel rooms. Of course, they were all a “Minus!” It turns out even the Delhi Police used Poo a couple of years ago to educate traffic offenders. They released a video in which Poo’s face is superimposed on a red traffic light, and she chides a driver who has jumped a signal with her signature dialogue, “Kaun hai yeh jisne dobara mud kar mujhe nahi dekha (Who is this person who didn’t look back at me)?” If Poo actually turned up at a signal, I think people would listen.

Poo, or Pooja, came into our lives in 2001 and has since remained a pop culture icon for the ages. Kareena Kapoor Khan, who has immortalised the character, has said Poo is nothing but a replica of Karan Johar, the director of the film. He enacted every line and over-the-top expression and handpicked all her iconic outfits. She blindly followed his lead and did such a great job of it that for decades people thought Poo was an autobiographical character — foolish, self-absorbed, bratty, but ultimately loveable. Kapoor Khan was in her early 20s when she played Poo and is now 44. And yet, she’s often asked to reference Poo or her other beloved character Geet (Jab We Met, 2007) in interviews, events and advertisements.

I was 15 when K3G released. Like any ’90s girl, I went to see Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan dance to “Bole Chudiyan” in the same frame and console each other on a bench. But somehow, I came out thinking about Poo. It wasn’t love at first sight. I’d say she was an acquired taste. In fact, she was a bit of a shock to the system. As much as I was dazzled by K3G, the women in the film weren’t having a great time. Jaya Bachchan was perennially weepy, Rani Mukerji got dumped and Kajol was rejected by the Raichand patriarch — played by Amitabh Bachchan. The only one having fun was Poo. We see a young Pooja from Chandni Chowk being bullied by rich kids for being too “verni”, or vernacular, until she moves to London and has a major glow-up.

An older Poo is introduced in pink satin pyjamas, styling her hair with a pink hairdryer, wiggling her derriere to the song “It’s Raining Men”. Later, she and her two sidekicks, mid-conversation, randomly yell “Hallelujah!” in unison. They’re overdressed for college and not very bright. Everything is loud, ridiculous and Kapoor Khan’s expressions are dialled to a hundred (although still many notches below Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon). I remember feeling confused; was this a terrible performance or was it pathbreaking?

In a number of interviews in which the actress has reflected on her career, she’s mentioned being nervous about how Poo would be received. At a time when her peers were choosing more “serious” and “crying” roles, she was saying lines like: “Am I looking PHAT? Pretty, hot and tempting?” She also felt that in the early 2000s there was hardly any appreciation for an actress in a comic role and that essaying Poo looked deceptively simple.

I believe her. There’s a sequence in the film where Poo rates the boys of her college on a scale of 1 to 10. The winner gets to go to prom with her. She scores them on three critical criteria: good looks, good looks, and good looks — another Poo line I find myself casually using in everyday life. This is a scene that has been repeatedly recreated by content creators and younger actresses like Alia Bhatt and Janhvi Kapoor. While the homages were admirable, they made you realise that Poo in any other actor’s hands could have gone another way.

It’s no secret that Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions had a Poo spin off in the works. The brief given to writer Ishita Moitra was: What if Poo becomes poor? I imagine this was sort of an Alexis Rose from Schitt’s Creek story. In her first ever concept note for the show, Moitra titled the show “POO-R”. This never got made but ultimately laid the foundation for Dharma’s popular 2024 show Call Me Bae, starring Ananya Panday. Bae is a direct descendant of Poo in that she’s clueless but cute. In fact, Poo was also the inspiration behind Ranveer Singh’s Rocky Randhawa in Rocky aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani — a rough-around-the-edges West Delhi gym bro with a heart of gold. Rocky, also written by Moitra, doesn’t know who the president of the country is or what Rabindranath Tagore looks like but that doesn’t dent his confidence. He is extremely proud of his “all natural, no steroids” gym body and that’s all the validation he needs. Moitra says they all belong to the family of “sunshine characters” that are meant to spread joy despite their flaws.

Poo has the rare distinction of consistently spreading joy across generations. In this she outranks several other female characters in Hindi films over the last 25 years. Every generation identifies with Poo, keeps her alive, and then passes her on to the next through memes, pop quizzes, gifs and comedy sketches. She’s an endless source of inspiration for content creators. What would Poo do in a lockdown; imagining Google as Poo; what if Poo was a Bengali; inspiring lessons from Poo; budget-friendly ways to recreate Poo’s iconic outfits — the continuous stream of material around her is staggering.

Actress and creator Kusha Kapila who has also generously contributed to Poo content feels the character’s biggest gift is that “she was millennial before millennials, and Gen Z before Gen Zs”. Poo was proudly “delulu” in 2001 and it worked out really well for her. And if K3G was all about loving your parents, Poo was all about loving herself. She practised self-love way before Instagram gurus took over our feeds. They would concur with her looking into a mirror and saying, “Tumhara koi haq nahi banta, ki tum itni khoobsurat lago (You don’t have the right to look so beautiful). Not fair.” It’s no wonder then that several Poo supporters on Reddit threads, mostly women, have gone as far as crowning her a “feminist icon”. I can imagine her brushing off this weighty title with an unbothered “whatever”.