Janhvi Kapoor has opened up about growing up as a star kid in today’s paparazzi culture. The actress stated in an interview with Newslaundry that paparazzi cameras have always been a part of her life and that since childhood, individuals have taken photographs of her and her sister Khushi Kapoor with or without their permission. When Janhvi was a teenager, she found modified photographs of herself on ‘inappropriate, almost pornographic pages’.
Janhvi, the daughter of late actress Sridevi and producer Boney Kapoor, told Newslaundry that there has been an ‘influx of fake images, more so with today’s advanced AI.’ She said, “People see these manipulated images and assume they’re real. That deeply concerns me.”
She also recalled being just ten years old when she realized the harmful impact of her internet presence. As a fourth-grade student, she stated that she had entered her school’s computer lab one day to find paparazzi pics of herself on Yahoo’s homepage, flashing across her classmates’ computer screens. Even though the headlines announced she was “being launched” in the film industry, she told Newslaundry she appeared ‘very uncomfortable’ and not ‘groomed’ in the photographs.
It did not make her ‘popular,’ but rather ‘alienated’ her from her friends in school, she said.