Ranbir Kapoor's Relationship History: From Bollywood's "Casanova" to Married Life with Alia Bhatt

In the article that follows, I look at what it means when nearly every stage of a relationship history is narrated in public — and at what changes when two partners choose, deliberately, to keep adjusting to each other rather than perform the relationship for an audience. If you recognise yourself in this theme, I designed an attachment style test that helps you understand your own relational pattern. I also wrote a book on this subject, Understanding Your Attachment Style, if you would like to go further. And if it's your own relationship's exchanges you'd rather look at directly, ScanMyLove gives you an objective, structured read of how you and your partner actually communicate.

Ranbir Kapoor's Relationship History: From Bollywood's "Casanova" to Married Life with Alia Bhatt

Few actors in Hindi cinema have had their private life narrated back to them, in public, as often as Ranbir Kapoor. Born on 28 September 1982 in Bombay into one of Bollywood's founding families — son of actors Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, grandson of Raj Kapoor, great-grandson of Prithviraj Kapoor — he inherited both a stage and an audience before he ever chose either. What followed, over nearly two decades in the public eye, was a relationship history followed almost frame by frame by the Indian press: three major, well-documented relationships, a widely repeated media label he has since pushed back on, and a marriage that unfolded very differently from what came before it.

An early label that stuck

Kapoor made his acting debut in 2007 with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya, a film that underperformed commercially. It was his second film, Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008), that produced something more lasting than box-office numbers: a reputation. During its production, Kapoor began a relationship with his co-star Deepika Padukone. The relationship lasted close to a year before ending in 2009. Multiple outlets reported infidelity as the reason, and Kapoor did not dispute it. Asked about it later, he said: "Yes, I have, out of immaturity, out of inexperience, out of taking advantage of certain temptations, out of callousness." Padukone, for her part, described the breakup as difficult during an appearance on Koffee With Karan, saying the relationship had, at the time, become "her entire world."

It is in the aftermath of Bachna Ae Haseeno that Kapoor says a specific media narrative took hold. "After my film 'Bachna Ae Haseeno' came out, I got this tag of being this Casanova, and it went on for a long period in my life," he said in a 2023 interview. He has also placed some responsibility for the label on how it was covered: "I would like to blame the members of the media here." Whatever its origin, the label proved durable — coverage of his romantic life over the following decade routinely refers back to it, whether or not the relationship being reported on had anything to do with the original breakup.

Kapoor and Padukone would go on to co-star in two successful romantic comedies, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) and Tamasha (2015), and are reported to have settled into a cordial working relationship by around 2015.

Katrina Kaif: six years, largely lived in public

Kapoor's next major relationship, with actress Katrina Kaif, is reported to have begun around the making of Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009–2010). For several years it remained unconfirmed, fuelled by paparazzi coverage — including photographs published in August 2013 showing the two together on a beach in Spain. The two did not publicly acknowledge the relationship until 2015. Kapoor explained the decision to speak about it at the time: "Both of us are sure about our relationship, and if we don't open about it now, it would be showing disrespect to the relationship." The relationship, reported by multiple outlets to have lasted roughly six years, ended in February 2016. Kaif later married actor Vicky Kaushal; Kapoor went on to marry Alia Bhatt.

Two other relationships from earlier in Kapoor's life are reported with less consistency across sources and were never confirmed by either party: a teenage relationship with Avantika Malik (who is now married to actor Imran Khan) that predates his film career, and a reported connection with Sonam Kapoor around the filming of Saawariya. A brief rumoured link to Priyanka Chopra, dated to around 2010, also never moved beyond speculation. None of these carry the level of corroboration or first-person confirmation attached to the relationships with Padukone, Kaif or Bhatt, and the press itself has generally treated them as unconfirmed.

Kapoor has spoken about how the media attention around his relationships affected him directly, and about a deliberate shift in how much he chose to share afterward: "When I was in a relationship earlier, I spoke about it freely, so the spotlight went away from my work. All I want to say is I don't want my life to be a reality show." Elsewhere, discussing how he counts his own relationship history, he put a number on it: "I've been in three relationships in my life. I would like to believe that I was in love. I would like to believe that the girl was in love with me."

A loss that reshaped the family, in his own words

In April 2020, Kapoor's father, veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, died of leukemia at the age of 67. Kapoor has spoken about the loss in blunt, unhedged terms rather than in the language of a public statement: "It has been quite a big year in my life, starting with losing a parent, which I don't think has seeped in yet. I am still, in some ways, dealing with that." He has also described the final months of his father's treatment directly: "Just the time I spent with him in these last two years, before he passed, walking with him from the hotel to the hospital while he was getting his chemotherapy, just walking in silence and being around him… I do know that it's the largest impact a human being has had on my life so far." Asked more generally about losing a parent, he said: "Nothing prepares you for that, but it brings the family closer. It makes you understand life." He has also credited his father directly for who he became: "I think the person I am is because of the strong value system that he imbibed in my sister and me. He was an extremely passionate man, a family man."

These are Kapoor's own words about his own experience of grief — not an outside reading of what that grief produced in him. His marriage, which followed roughly two years later, is documented here on its own terms, without inferring a causal line between the two.

Alia Bhatt: a different kind of public relationship

Kapoor began dating actress Alia Bhatt in 2018; the two later co-starred in Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva (2022). Unlike his earlier relationships, this one was acknowledged relatively early and discussed more openly by both. They married on 14 April 2022, in an intimate ceremony at Kapoor's Bandra residence, attended by around 50 family members and close friends. Their daughter, Raha, was born on 6 November 2022, at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai; the couple kept her face out of public view until a first appearance at Christmas 2023.

Kapoor has described fatherhood plainly, without the guardedness that marked his earlier comments on relationships: "It's truly the best feeling in the world... It feels like a new understanding of love. It's a love you cannot describe." On marriage itself, in a 2024 podcast appearance, he was notably direct about the ordinary mechanics of making a partnership work, rather than presenting it as effortless: "Especially when you're in a marriage, you have to let go of your personality. She's also letting go of her personality. We're adjusting to each other to make it liveable for each other. Any marriage is doing that. You have to let go, you have to adjust, you have to sacrifice facets of it. It's impossible for two people to like each other the way they are." He specifically credited Bhatt with adapting her own communication style, noting she "used to speak in a very loud tone" and "really made efforts to change that," adding that "she makes certain efforts to put me at ease." Bhatt, in turn, has described him as a father this way: "As a father, he is so full — there's a fullness that I have experienced, and I see it on a daily basis."

What the record actually shows

Strip away the recurring "Casanova" headline, and what remains is a fairly conventional arc: a young actor whose early relationships played out under intense, often unwanted scrutiny; a breakup he has openly taken responsibility for; a long relationship that stayed private for years before both parties chose, deliberately, to confirm it; a loss that he has described candidly rather than performed for cameras; and a marriage he describes not as a fairy tale but as ongoing, mutual adjustment. Kapoor himself has said as much about the gap between the narrative and the person: "You got to separate the art from the artist." The record he has put on record, in his own words, over nearly two decades, is the most reliable account of that separation available.

Related reading

• Grieving a Parent: 7 Ways to Navigate Adult Loss
• Infidelity: 6 Psychological Reasons Why People Cheat

FAQ

Who has Ranbir Kapoor dated?

Three relationships are documented largely in his own words: Deepika Padukone (2008–2009, during the filming of Bachna Ae Haseeno), Katrina Kaif (reported from around 2009–2010, publicly confirmed by both only in 2015, ending in February 2016), and Alia Bhatt, whom he began dating in 2018 and married in April 2022.

Why was Ranbir Kapoor called a "Casanova"?

The label followed his 2009 breakup with Deepika Padukone, which multiple outlets reported was caused by infidelity — something Kapoor did not dispute, later saying he acted "out of immaturity, out of inexperience, out of taking advantage of certain temptations, out of callousness." He has said the tag then followed him for years, regardless of which relationship the coverage was actually about.

When did Ranbir Kapoor marry Alia Bhatt?

They married on 14 April 2022 in an intimate ceremony at Kapoor's Bandra residence, attended by around 50 family members and close friends. Their daughter, Raha, was born on 6 November 2022.