Due to family tradition, her father wanted her to get married early and settle down, thus avoiding acting, which was considered a taboo for Kapoor women. This led to irreconcilable differences between her parents, and resulted in her mother leaving the house along with Kapoor and her sister. She was raised by her mother, who, with difficulty, worked several jobs to support the family, until her sister got into films in 1991.
Kapoor did her schooling at Jamnabai Narsee School in Mumbai, and later Welham Girls Boarding School in Dehradun. After studying commerce at Mithibai College, Vile Parle for two years, she took a three-month summer course in microcomputers at Harvard. She developed an interest in law, thus enrolled at the Government's Law College in Churchgate. After completing one year there, she returned to her initial plan to become an actor, and began training under Kishor Namit Kapoor, the founder of Kapoor Acting Lab
