The seeds of reunion that Kareena Kapoor and cousin Ranbir Kapoor had sown at the Saawariya premiere in 2007 finally gained fruit earlier this week. The Kapoor khandaan’s longstanding cold war (namely Babita Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor’s standoff) thawed after Kareena spent hours with the family at the Dubai airport.

Kareena, on a marathon promotional spree for her upcoming film Heroine was in Dubai on Tuesday. Incidentally, Rishi Kapoor along with Neetu and Ranbir were in Dubai on a holiday to bring in his birthday. “Kareena and Ranbir have been taking baby steps towards bringing the families together. Kareena and Ranbir were aware of each other’s plans but Bebo could only meet the family briefly in Dubai as her schedule was packed,” says a source close to the family.
Instead, Rishi Kapoor and co. bonded with Kareena at the airport as they had a lot of time on hand before they took the same flight. Eyewitnesses saw them chatting and eating together like one big family and the revelry continued on the flight back as well.
The source adds, “Rishiji has always been very fond of both Kareena and Karisma. He was so excited to meet her. In Mumbai, they hardly meet except at events thanks to her busy schedule and the friction between the families. Neetuji hugged her with open arms and they stayed in the embrace for a while. That’s really all it took. Then they chatted like long-lost pals in a hurry to catch up on the time gone by.”
While the senior Kapoor brothers Randhir and Rishi openly bonded, appeared on chat shows and have maintained that they have been always very close to each other, their respective wives Babita and Neetu haven’t quite shared the same affection. Kapoor khandaan associates claim the problems started after the children were born, and escalated over two decades. The two former actresses have gone out of the way to avoid each other, a sentiment that occasionally trickled between their children.
At the premiere of Ranbir’s debut film Saawariya, Kareena walked in with beau Saif Ali Khan and insisted on sitting with Ranbir’s family that had come in full force to cheer him on. After watching the film, Kareena waxed eloquent about Ranbir saying, “I loved Saawariya. We Kapoors are here to rock together.”
And rocking they certainly are. The cousins are set to play siblings in Zoya Akhtar’s next film, signalling that all is more than well between the two. It just took the families a little long to fall in line. We’re waiting for the Babita-Neetu photo op, just as much as you are.

Diary of a khandaan
Two decades of bitterness cannot be swept away in a moment, and so it is that Bebo and Ranbir have worked steadily towards building bridges between their families. The Kapoor versus Kapoor animosity was so intense at one time that Neetu and the children weren’t even invited to Karisma’s wedding. So when Riddhima was getting married, Rishi invited Karisma and her husband but not Kareena and Babita. Karisma, however, didn’t attend her wedding.
In fact, when Riddhima and Karisma both settled in Delhi after their respective shaadis, Riddhima mentioned that she hadn’t ever been introduced to her cousin’s husband Sunjay Kapur. But all that seems to be past now.
In June at the IIFA awards, Ranbir cheekily imitated Kareena in herBebo Main Bebo number on stage, earning a lot of good-natured laughs. In July, reports emerged that the cousins would play siblings in a Zoya Akhtar film.
During the Filmfare Awards this January, Lolo and Bebo presented Ranbir his Critics’ Choice Best Actor trophy — making for a Kodak moment indeed.
Ranbir made it a point to see Jab We Met and rave about his Bebo’s performance. Kareena had done the same when Ranbir’s debut, Saawariya, was released.