Katrina Kaif (born Katrina Turquotte on July 16, 1983) is a British actress who works in Hindi-language films. She is one of India's highest-paid actresses, with four Screen Awards and four Zed Cine Awards to her name, as well as three Filmfare nominations. Though her acting has received mixed reviews, she is best known for her dance ability in a number of successful item numbers.
Kaif was born in Hong Kong and lived in numerous locations before relocating to London for three years. She got her first modelling job as a youngster and went on to seek a career as a fashion model. Indian filmmaker Kaizad Gustad cast her in Boom (2003), a critical and economic flop, at a fashion show in London. While Kaif had a great modelling career in India, she had difficulty getting film roles at first due to her weak grasp of Hindi. Following her appearance in the Telugu film Malliswari (2004), Kaif found financial success in Bollywood with the romantic comedy Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya? and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Namastey London (2005) and Namastey London (2007). A string of box-office hits followed, but she was chastised for her performance, repetitious roles, and preference for male-dominated films.
Kaif's performances in the thriller New York (2009) and the romantic comedy Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (2011) were more well-received, winning her Filmfare Award nominations for Best Actress. During this time, she appeared in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009), Raajneeti (2010), and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), as well as the action films Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Dhoom 3 (2013), and Bang Bang! (2014), which are all among the top-grossing Indian films. These were followed by a string of commercial flops, with the exception of the action movie Tiger Zinda Hai (2017) and Sooryavanshi (2021) and the drama Bharat (2019). Kaif won the Zed Cine Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as an alcoholic actress in the love movie Zero (2018).
In the media, Kaif is usually listed among India's most popular and gorgeous celebrities. She established her cosmetic business Kay Beauty in 2019 as a frequent brand endorser. She performs in stage plays and works with her mother's organisation, Relief Projects India, to help disadvantaged children. Vicky Kaushal, an actor, is Kaif's husband.
Early years
Katrina Kaif was born on July 16, 1983, in British Hong Kong, with the surname Turquotte (sometimes written Turcotte). Mohammed Kaif, her father, is a British businessman of Kashmiri heritage, and her mother (Suzanne, alternatively spelled Susanna) is an English lawyer and charity worker. She has seven siblings: three older sisters, Stephanie, Christine, and Natasha; three younger sisters, Melissa, Sonia, and Isabel; and one older brother, Sebastien. Isabel is a model and actress as well. When Kaif was a child, her parents divorced and her father relocated to the United States. She said that her father had no influence on her or her siblings as they grew up, and that they were reared solely by their mother. She stated in a 2009 interview with The Indian Express that she had lost contact with her father.
Some people of the film business have questioned Kaif's paternal parentage. Boom producer Ayesha Shroff accused Kaif of fabricating her history in a 2011 interview with Mumbai Mirror: "We created an identity for her. She was this pretty young English girl, and we gave her the Kashmiri father and thought of calling her Katrina Kazi. We thought we'd give her some kind of Indian ancestry, to connect with the audience... But then we thought that Kazi sounded too... religious?... Mohammad Kaif was at the top, and so we said Shroff's comments, according to Kaif, were "hurtful."
Because Kaif's mother is a social activist, the family has lived in several countries for varied durations of time. Kaif and her siblings were thus home-schooled by a series of tutors. She stated:
Growing up, we moved from Hong Kong, where I was born, to China, then to Japan, and then by boat from Japan to France... After France and Switzerland—and I'm leaving out numerous East European nations where we just spent a few months each—we arrived in Kraków, Poland... After that, we went to Belgium, then to Hawaii for a brief while before returning to London.
Kaif spent three years in London before relocating to India. Kaif, then 14, won a beauty pageant in Hawaii and landed her first modelling job in a jewellery commercial. She went on to model professionally in London, working for freelancing agencies and attending London Fashion Week on a regular basis. During this time, she travelled to India for the first time when an Asian acquaintance advised it.
Career
Beginnings in acting (2003-2005)
Kaif caught the eye of London-based filmmaker Kaizad Gustad at a fashion event. In Gustad's Hindi-English heist film Boom, she made her acting debut alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Gulshan Grover, Jackie Shroff, Madhu Sapre, and Padma Lakshmi. Kaif received more offers while filming in India and opted to stay; she then changed her surname to her father's because she thought it would be simpler to pronounce. After walking the runway for Rohit Bal at India Fashion Week, she was spotted as a model and appeared in the first Kingfisher Calendar. Kaif quickly built a successful modelling career in India after endorsing brands such as Coca-Cola, LG, Fevicol, and Samsung.
Boom (2003) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was widely advertised, but it was a commercial and critical flop. Kaif's portrayal of a supermodel trapped in the Mumbai underworld was met with criticism; Ziya Us Salam of The Hindu criticised Kaif and the other female performers for their lack of expressiveness. She later dismissed Boom as a minor part of her career, attributing her decision to her ignorance of Indian consumers' cinema tastes at the time. According to the Hindustan Times, after the release of Boom, Kaif was written off due to her terrible Hindi and thick British accent, and as a result, producers were afraid to feature her in their films. Kaif soon started taking Hindi classes to improve her diction. In 2003, director Mahesh Bhatt replaced Kaif in Saaya with Tara Sharma because Kaif's acting on set was inadequate compared to her audition for the role.
Following the failure of her debut Bollywood production, Kaif starred in the Telugu film Malliswari (2004) as the title character, a princess forced to leave her deadly guardian. Kaif was paid 7.5 million rupees (US$94,000) for the film, which was the highest for a female lead at the time in South Indian cinema; Sify ascribed this feat to her looks and figure. Despite receiving harsh feedback for her performance, she was nominated for a Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Telugu and earned multiple film offers as a result. Malliswari was a successful venture. Kaif made a brief appearance as Abhishek Bachchan's girlfriend in Ram Gopal Varma's political thriller Sarkar in 2005. She next appeared in Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya? with Salman Khan, Sushmita Sen, and Sohail Khan., which she saw as her "first real step into Bollywood." The film was a successful version of the romantic comedy Cactus Flower, directed by David Dhawan. Kaif won the Stardust Award for Breakthrough Performance - Female for her depiction as a suicidal model. "Katrina's Disney princess-like charm adds to her adorable screen presence," writes Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com. According to a critic from The Hindu, Kaif's second Telugu film, Allari Pidugu, had "very little role to play and shake a leg or two with the hero."
Breakthrough period (2006-2008)
She made her debut with Raj Kanwar's flop Humko Deewana Kar Gaye in 2006, the first of several collaborations with co-star Akshay Kumar. It's the story of two strangers who fell in love while being engaged to other people. According to a Sify critic, Kaif was "passably competent in a tailor-made role, giving a mild emotional spin to a couple of scenes" but was overpowered by her supporting actresses. The next year, Kaif co-starred alongside Mammootty in the Malayalam criminal thriller Balram vs. Tharadas.
In 2007, Kaif's career chances improved after she participated in four Bollywood hits. She described Vipul Amrutlal Shah's romantic comedy Namastey London as her first dominant part in an interview with The Indian Express. Kaif drew on her experiences in London to play Jasmeet Malhotra, a pampered British Indian girl determined to marry her self-centered British boyfriend against her parents' opposition. Despite varied reactions from critics, Sukanya Verma noted that Kaif "suits the role to the T" and "brings the zingy mix of her character alive with style and substance." The chemistry between Kaif and co-star Akshay Kumar was especially warmly welcomed, with Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India calling their casting "refreshing." Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama called Kaif "confident" in Humko Deewana Kar Gaye and "a revelation" in Namastey London, praising her for being convincing in the challenging situations. Author Michael Lawrence claimed in his book Indian Film Stars: New Critical Perspectives that producers' decision to cast Kaif as a non-resident Indian in various films, including Namastey London, was to capitalise on her foreign looks. Lawrence saw Kaif's Hindi with an English accent as part of her allure.
Kaif played a doctor in the sports drama Apne, which was widely anticipated because it featured Dharmendra's first appearance with his sons, Sunny and Bobby Deol. Following Apne, she reunited with filmmaker David Dhawan and Salman Khan for the comedy Partner, an adaptation of Hitch starring Govinda and Lara Dutta. The picture was a huge commercial success, grossing $1.03 billion (US$13 million) worldwide. Welcome, directed by Anees Bazmee and starring Akshay Kumar, Nana Patekar, Mallika Sherawat, and Anil Kapoor, was Kaif's final film of the year. Despite generally unfavourable reviews, the film was the second highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2007. Shoma Chaudhury of Tehelka observed the similarity of Kaif's performances, calling her "unabashed eye-candy" and saying she was "a pretty prop in Welcome" and "more of the same in Partner and Apne."
Kaif had three films released in 2008, the first of which was Abbas-Mustan's action thriller Race, about two stepbrothers-turned-rivals competing for their father's insurance money. Kaif played Saif Ali Khan's secretary, who is also the sweetheart of his stepbrother (Akshaye Khanna). Nikhat Kazmi liked the film's look and action, but thought Kaif was underwhelming in her role. Kaif reunited with Akshay Kumar in Anees Bazmee's action comedy Singh Is Kinng, which grossed 1.25 billion rupees (US$16 million) globally, making her her sixth consecutive box-office hit. Her performance, however, drew mixed reviews. News18's Rajeev Masand called Kaif "an eyesore in every sense of the word" and her acting "weak." Yuvvraaj, a drama directed by Subhash Ghai, was Kaif's final film of the year. She practised with orchestra members in preparation for her job as a cellist. Sify's Sonia Chopra praised her portrayal of a girl forbidden by her father from marrying her poor lover, saying, "Katrina is wonderful, plays the cello convincingly, and looks ethereal." Despite the film's mixed critical reception, its screenplay was added to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences library for its artistic merit.
Due to her lack of fluency in Hindi and other Indian languages, Kaif's voice had previously been dubbed over by voice artists in the majority of her films. Although her films were financially successful during this time period, reviewers remarked that she played minor roles in them since they were mostly male-dominated, and her performances were heavily panned. She rationalised her choice of these glamorous roles as part of her education, with no intention of making a specific type of film. When questioned about her reluctance to appear in smaller scale films in order to gain credibility as an actress, she responded, "I do not believe that you have to take off your make-up and look simple to prove you're an actress... I'm not going to make a morose film that no one will watch just so people take me seriously as an actress." The tour, which also included Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal, began in Amsterdam in June and ended four months later in Dubai's Festival City Arena in front of 15,000 people.
Success in the mainstream (2009-2013)
Kaif began looking for more important roles after a spate of films in which she was put in gorgeous, 'arm candy' roles. Kabir Khan's terrorism drama New York (2009) provided one such possibility. The film, which also stars John Abraham and Neil Nitin Mukesh, depicts the lives of three friends after one of them is wrongfully incarcerated following 9/11. Maya, a college girl who accidentally marries a terrorist, was played by Kaif. Kaif resonated with the character's circumstances because she had encountered racial discrimination while living in London. New York did well at the box office and earned positive reviews. According to Subhash K. Jha, Kaif was a successful actress in a significant part, convincingly portraying her character's transformation from a carefree student to a tortured wife. According to The Times of India, it was the best performance of her career. Kaif received her first Filmfare Award nomination for Best Actress in New York. She then had a brief appearance in Blue, India's first underwater thriller. In Rajkumar Santoshi's successful comedy Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009), Kaif co-starred with Ranbir Kapoor as an orphan forced to marry a rich guy. Bollywood Hungama's Taran Adarsh commended the actors' lively chemistry and noted that Kaif played well in both emotional and light parts. Priyadarshan's comedy De Dana Dan was her final film of the year. She performed with Akon at the 2009 Indian Premier League closing ceremony at Johannesburg's Wanderers Stadium.
In 2010, Kaif co-starred with Ranbir Kapoor, Ajay Devgan, Arjun Rampal, Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai, and Sarah Thompson in Prakash Jha's political thriller Raajneeti. The Mahabharata and Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather served as inspiration for the film. The film, set in Bhopal, depicted a hard fought election campaign between two parties aiming to capture power by manipulation, corruption, and treachery. Kaif denied media rumours that her role was inspired by Sonia Gandhi. In preparation for her role as Indu, a politician loosely modelled on Draupadi, she studied the body language and interactions of politicians by watching Priyanka Gandhi's election campaign films. Critics mostly gave the film positive reviews. Raajneeti was described as "thrilling and gripping" by Rajeev Masand, however Namrata Joshi was critical of the film's portrayal of women. Nikhat Kazmi praised Kaif's portrayal as "carefree and camera-unconscious," writing that she "seems to slip easily into the high-powered shoes." The picture was a huge hit at the box office, grossing 1.4 billion (US$18 million) in total.
Kaif worked with Akshay Kumar for the sixth time in the slapstick comedy Tees Maar Khan (2010), playing an aspiring actress who happens to be the girlfriend of a crook (Kumar). Kaif performed a hit item number named "Sheila Ki Jawani" in the film. Farah Khan choreographed the song, while Kaif was trained by professional Veronica D'Souza for the belly dancing segment. Tees Maar Khan, in contrast to the song's success, was criticised by reviewers and performed poorly at the box office. Renuka Rao of Daily News and Analysis thought Kaif's "drama queen act" was weak but observed that she was great in the item number.
Kaif was cast alongside Hrithik Roshan in Zoya Akhtar's coming-of-age dramedy Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara the following year. The plot follows three buddies on a bachelor party, and Kaif plays Laila, a diving instructor who becomes emotionally connected with Roshan's character and motivates him to overcome his workaholism. Due to her lack of experience, she had problems filming her scuba diving scene; she was so terrified that she dug her nails into costar Roshan. The film was a commercial and critical triumph. Variety's Richard Kuipers called her "delightful" in the portrayal of a pleasant young woman who helps others to acknowledge their flaws. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara won multiple Best Film awards. Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (2011), a romantic comedy produced by Yash Raj Films, starring Kaif with Imran Khan and Ali Zafar. She was tested by the role of Dimple Dixit, whose outspoken and volatile attitude contrasted sharply with Kaif's. The film received mixed reviews at its initial release, but Kaif's performance was universally lauded. Dimple is described as one of the year's most interesting female characters in the book Mother Maiden Mistress. According to The Economic Times' Gaurav Malani, the film is mostly watchable because of "Katrina's live-wire energy, wherein she never goes overboard and keeps bustling with vivacity throughout the runtime." For this performance, Kaif won her second Filmfare nomination for Best Actress.
In 2012, Kaif performed in Agneepath's "Chikni Chameli," a song that integrated dancing movements from the Lavani genre (a Maharashtrian traditional dance). Kaif found it difficult to film the music video, which was completed in ten days, because the style was unfamiliar to her. Filmfare's Rachit Gupta attributed the song's success to her "infectious energy," stating that her "gyrations and belly movements were an onslaught of attraction for the fans." Kaif next starred as a Pakistani ISI agent who falls in love with an Indian RAW agent in Kabir Khan's espionage thriller Ek Tha Tiger. The film received mostly excellent reviews, with Daily News and Analysis' Aniruddha Guha calling it "smart and stylish." "Katrina is an able, animated foil to Salman, her long legs making her leaps and kicks credible," noted Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express of her performance. Ek Tha Tiger was the highest-grossing Bollywood film of the year, grossing $3.1 billion (US$39 million) globally.
Later that year, Kaif co-starred with Shah Rukh Khan in Yash Chopra's farewell film, Jab Tak Hai Jaan. She expressed her joy at working with Chopra, saying, "Undoubtedly, he is the king of romance, and I have always admired the way he presents his heroines. It was always a dream to work with him, and the reality is even better." She played Meera, a woman who vows to end her affair with her comatose lover if he survives. While the film earned mainly excellent reviews, Kaif's performance received mixed reactions. According to News18, Kaif was ineffective in her role and struggled in emotional and difficult sequences. The picture was a commercial success, grossing $2.11 billion (US$26 million) worldwide. Kaif later took part in and walked the runway in a fashion exhibition in remembrance of Chopra.
Kaif reunited with Shah Rukh Khan for his 2013 "Temptations Reloaded" concert in Muscat, performed in front of nearly 18,000 people, and joined Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, and Pitbull in Kolkata for the 2013 IPL season opening ceremony. She made a brief appearance alongside Aamir Khan in Vijay Krishna Acharya's action film Dhoom 3 in 2013. She trained for a year in Pilates, functional training, and aerial straps to prepare for her career as a circus artist. The film got mixed reviews, with some criticising Kaif for playing a minor role, while Taran Adarsh deemed her to be "ethereal" and "moving with incredible grace in dance numbers." Dhoom 3 became the highest-earning Bollywood film of all time, grossing $5.42 billion (US$68 million) at the box office until it was overtaken by PK in 2014.
Career shifts (2014-present)
Following that, Kaif appeared in Siddharth Anand's Bang Bang! (2014), an adaptation of the 2010 action comedy Knight and Day. She portrayed a bank receptionist who unintentionally becomes involved with a covert agent (Hrithik Roshan). Rediff.com's Raja Sen panned her performance, calling it "insufferable." The film was commercially successful, but financial analysts noted that it fell short of box-office forecasts. Kaif made her single cameo in 2015 alongside Saif Ali Khan in Kabir Khan's post-26/11 counter-terrorism drama Phantom. Kaif studied Arabic in order to play former RAW agent Nawaz Mistry. Phantom and Kaif's next two films, Fitoor and Baar Baar Dekho, were commercial flops. Fitoor, directed by Abhishek Kapoor, is an adaption of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, in which Kaif plays Estella Havisham with Aditya Roy Kapur and Tabu. Namrata Joshi thought Kaif was good in moments when she danced, smiled, or flirted but not so well in dramatic roles. In Nitya Mehra's science-fiction romance Baar Baar Dekho, she was coupled with Sidharth Malhotra. The Indian Express' Shubhra Gupta found Kaif expressionless but applauded her and Malhotra's explosive dance sequence in "Kala Chashma," which has received over one billion views on YouTube. She also performed in many American locations with other Indian celebrities on the "Dream Team Tour" in 2016.
Kaif next appeared in Anurag Basu's comedy-adventure Jagga Jasoos, opposite Ranbir Kapoor. After delays due by screenplay changes and many reshoots, the film was released in 2017. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a commercial flop. Mayank Shekhar of Mid-Day applauded Kaif and Kapoor for their confidence in front of the camera, however Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV pointed out Kaif's futile attempt to compete with Kapoor. In the same year, Kaif reteamed with Salman Khan in Ali Abbas Zafar's action thriller Tiger Zinda Hai, a sequel to the 2012 blockbuster Ek Tha Tiger. The film debuted on Christmas weekend to strong box office collections, making over 1.1 billion dollars in three days. Rachit Gupta said that Kaif made up for her minimal language by effectively performing hand-to-hand combat and gunfight scenes, calling it "invigorating to see a lady kick-ass with so much élan and pull all the punches like they're real." According to Shubhra Gupta's BBC article on Bollywood's exploitation of female characters, Kaif's status as an action heroine is refreshing.
Thugs of Hindostan, a period action-adventure film, and Zero, a romantic comedy-drama, were Kaif's two 2018 releases. Despite being among the year's most anticipated releases, both films were box office duds. Regarding the former's failure, Kaif stated that she had not committed much in the project due to her restricted screen time. After Jab Tak Hai Jaan, she reunited with Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma in Aanand L Rai's Zero. Kaif was initially hesitant to take on the role of a second female star, but agreed when Khan and Rai insisted. Though critics gave Zero mixed reviews, Kaif's portrayal of an alcoholic actress garnered her accolades; Udita Jhunjhunwala of Mint praised her for giving "what could be considered her most authentic performance." In 2018, Sukanya Verma called Kaif a "revelation" and said her "constantly crying eyes, poker-faced cynicism, and wholehearted submission to demeaning impulses underscore the fragility under the furore." She won a Zed Cine Award for Best Supporting Actress for Zero and was nominated for a Filmfare Award in the same category.
Kaif reunited with Salman Khan and Ali Abbas Zafar in the 2019 drama Bharat, a remake of the South Korean film Ode to My Father (2014). In the role of an engineer who falls in love with Khan's character, Kaif took over for Priyanka Chopra. Kaif denied media allegations that she accepted the role as a courtesy for her buddy Khan, instead citing her enjoyment of the writing. Bharat became one of the year's highest-grossing Hindi films. While reactions to the film were mixed, Mike McCahil of The Guardian praised Kaif and Khan's "well-tended chemistry" and said "the sincerity in her gaze" helped the audience overlook her character's poor choices. Kaif's only 2020 film would have been Rohit Shetty's Sooryavanshi, in which she would have co-starred with Akshay Kumar, but the COVID-19 outbreak in India led it to be delayed multiple times until its ultimate November 2021 release. Kaif, a fan of Shetty's larger-than-life filmmaking style, played Kumar's character's wife. Sooryavanshi was a box-office hit, briefly becoming the highest-grossing picture in India that year. Following that, Kaif starred as a ghost in the comic horror thriller Phone Bhoot (2022), alongside Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter. Her comedic timing failed to impress reviewers from The Indian Express and The Week.
Kaif will next appear with Vijay Sethupathi in Sriram Raghavan's Merry Christmas, and she will reprise her role as Zoya in Tiger 3, the third installment in the Tiger franchise.
In 2022, Kaif will be married to Vicky Kaushal.
Kaif has a tight bond with her family, and the absence of a father figure in her life has made her feel responsible for them. Kaif's mother is Christian and her father is Muslim, however she claims she was allowed to practise the faith of her choice and is a "firm believer in God." According to the Times of India, she visits Siddhivinayak Temple, Mount Mary Church, and the Sufi shrine Ajmer Sharif Dargah before releasing her films.
Kaif is hesitant to share her personal life, which has received much media interest in India. "I've always believed there is life before and after marriage." Before marriage, you are referred to as a single lady, and I prefer to live that period of my life with perfect respect and discretion."
Although suspicions of a romance with actor Salman Khan initially surfaced in 2003, it wasn't until years after their breakup that Kaif spoke about it, referring to it as her first serious relationship. They stayed friends, and she credits Khan with giving her confidence and direction. During the filming of Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Kaif was linked to actor Ranbir Kapoor. Stardust published photos of Kapoor and Kaif on vacation in August 2013, which were seen as confirmation of a romantic relationship. Following the release of the images, Kaif sent an open letter in which she stated that she was "upset, distressed, and invaded" by the invasion of privacy. They split up in 2016. On December 9, 2021, Kaif married actor Vicky Kaushal at the Six Senses Resort, Fort Barwara in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. Their wedding received extensive media coverage in India.
Philanthropy
Kaif is a supporter of a variety of causes and charity organisation. The Times of India praised her for keeping a low profile regarding her charity activity. Kaif is an active member of Relief Projects India, a humanitarian trust created by her mother that aims to improve the lives of poor children by providing quality education, rehabilitating and teaching orphans, and preventing female infanticide. She provides a portion of her salary to the foundation each year, and her winnings from the game show Her mother's Mercy Home orphanage received 10 Ka Dum and Kaun Banega Crorepati donations. Rhyme Skool (2010), an album of nursery rhymes composed by A. R. Rahman, was recorded to generate funds for a new school erected by her mother's charity in Madurai. Kaif has also contributed clothing and personal items to help establish a prenatal care facility at the Claretian Mercy Home in Madurai.
Kaif has been outspoken about issues including as gender equality, domestic abuse, and women's empowerment. She has underlined the need of education in combating gender inequality and violence against women. Concerning the gender wage gap, she has advocated for more big-budget, female-dominated films in Hindi cinema. Kaif was one of numerous celebrities that created promotional messages for the Pearls Wave Trust in 2010, which advocates against violence and abuse against women and girls. She was invited to speak at the 2016 WeUnite conference, which was organised by UN Women as part of their Orange the World project to promote gender equality and women's empowerment.
Kaif has expressed her support for LGBT rights, cancer research, and children's education. In 2012, she paid a visit to the Cancer Patients Aid Association to provide gifts to cancer survivors and raise public awareness about breast and cervical cancer. The following year, she participated alongside other celebrities in a National Film Development Corporation of India commercial to raise awareness about children's education. Kaif, who has worked with the Being Human Foundation to assist rehabilitate street children, walked the runway for charity as part of the "Being Human" fashion event in 2009 and 2010. Kaif was chosen ambassador of Educate Girls in 2018, a non-profit organisation that promotes and supports girls' education in India's most rural and educationally challenging areas. She visited a distant area in Madhya Pradesh as part of her position as an ambassador.
In 2019, she started the #Kare initiatives, a charitable programme under her cosmetics business Kay Beauty that supports a variety of humanitarian concerns such as rural women's employment. Kaif joined the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its efforts to combat human trafficking in India in 2007. As part of NDTV's reality show Jai Jawan (2011), Kaif visited sepoys in Jammu. In 2016, she also walked the runway for Manish Malhotra and the Sachachari Foundation's annual charity fashion show. During the COVID-19 epidemic in India in 2020, she gave an undisclosed sum of money to the PM CARES Fund and the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund, as part of a relief effort against the outbreak, and she financed the small enterprises of 100 Hindi film dancers.
Image from the media
Kaif is regarded as one of India's most popular and well-known celebrities. Her breakthrough in Bollywood has prompted an inflow of foreign talent looking to break into the industry. Despite her dissimilarity to a traditional Bollywood heroine, Kaif "turned every adversity into opportunity and climbed the slippery pole of stardom," according to an India Today story. The Guardian's Alia Waheed noted that Kaif "fitted the new trend for a more modern image of the Bollywood heroine" with her Western style. According to Nivedita Mishra of the Hindustan Times, in a career analysis, Kaif eventually took on roles that accentuated her "charming and jovial" screen appearance, despite her initial poor mastery of the Hindi language and an unsatisfactory acting debut. Mishra went on to say that Kaif become one of India's highest-paid actresses by acknowledging her limits, stressing her strengths as an artist, and making wise decisions. In reaction to being stereotyped, Kaif stated that she believes in herself and uses it as inspiration to accomplish what she enjoys.
Despite being a commercially successful film star, Kaif's acting abilities have gotten mixed reviews. Anuya Jakatdar, writing for Firstpost, urged that Kaif embrace hard jobs instead of "coasting on her co-star's box office appeal" and critiqued her preference for glossy roles. Khalid Mohamed of Khaleej Times saw her hesitation to take risks by acting in independent films as a flaw as well. When asked if she has a dream role, Kaif stated she chooses scripts naturally and does not have a favourite genre. Kaif's dancing abilities has gotten better accolades, with The Times of India and The Indian Express describing her as "one of Bollywood's best dancers." Rachit Gupta calls her "the undisputed Queen of Bollywood dance numbers." Initially hesitant to dance in films, Kaif has grown to enjoy it and has described it as a pleasurable and peaceful experience. She stated in 2010 that she spent several hours a day practising traditional dance.
Kaif is frequently named in the media as one of India's most beautiful celebrities, and she consistently ranks high in polls of the most gorgeous Indian celebrities. FHM India awarded her the "World's Sexiest Woman" five times between 2008 and 2013, and she was named to Verve's list of most powerful women in 2009 and 2010. From 2008 to 2010, and again in 2013, she was named the "Sexiest Asian Woman" by the UK magazine Eastern Eye. Kaif was awarded "Most Desirable Woman" by The Times of India in 2010, and she was placed second from 2011 to 2013. Mattel made two sets of Barbie dolls based on Kaif in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, she was named "India's Most Beautiful Woman" by the Indian version of People, and three years later she topped Maxim India's "Hot 100" survey. In March 2015, a life-size wax figure of her was put in London's Madame Tussauds, making her the seventh Bollywood performer to be copied as a wax statue there. Shikha Talwar of GQ India praised Kaif's "enviable physique," which she ascribed to her workouts and balanced nutrition. Journalists from The Hindu and Hindustan Times praised her "trademark elegance and simplistic style" as well as her "sense of originality and immense grace" in her attire.
Kaif started her cosmetic business Kay Beauty in 2019 in collaboration with the Indian e-commerce company Nykaa. It comprised lipsticks, foundations, highlighters, and blush compacts, among other things. In an interview with Cosmopolitan, she stated that her brand seeks to challenge society's exclusive beauty standards and promote inclusivity and comfort in one's own skin. The brand has been hailed for its inclusivity and diversity, as it was India's first celebrity makeup brand at the time. Kaif is a brand ambassador for several companies, including Slice, Nakshatra, Lux, Panasonic, Lakmé, and L'Oréal. In 2012, the Economic Times named Kaif India's second most notable endorser. According to the Hindustan Times, she received between 50 million (US$630,000) and 60 million (US$750,000) for each endorsement, making her one of India's highest-paid celebrity endorsers. From 2012 through 2019, Kaif was included in Forbes' list of India's best-known celebrities, peaking at ninth place in 2013 with an estimated annual revenue Rs 652 million (US$8.2 million). Her net worth is estimated to be 2 billion rupees (US$25 million) by Forbes India in 2021. She is one of the most following Bollywood actors on Instagram as of 2022.
| Bio/Wiki | |
|---|---|
| Real Name | Katrina Turquotte |
| Nickname(s) | • Kat • Katy • Katz • Sambo |
| Profession | Actress |
| Physical Stats & More | |
| Height | in centimeters- 174 cm in meters- 1.74 m in feet inches- 5' 8½” |
| Weight (approx.) | in kilograms- 55 kg in pounds- 121 lbs |
| Figure Measurements (approx.) | 34-26-34 |
| Eye Colour | Brown |
| Hair Colour | Black |
| Career | |
| Debut | Film: Boom (2003) |
| Personal Life | |
| Date of Birth | 16 July 1983 |
| Age (as of 2022) | 39 Years |
| Birthplace | Hong Kong |
| Zodiac sign | Cancer |
| Signature |  |
| Nationality | British |
| Hometown | London, United Kingdom |
| School | Homeschooling (Taught at home by her mother, tutors and also did correspondence courses) |
| College | Dropout (Left her college in London to pursue acting career in Bollywood) |
| Educational Qualification | High School |
| Religion | Islam |
| Food Habit | Non-Vegetarian |
| Hobbies | Playing Chess, Painting, Reading |
| Relationships & More | |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Marriage Date | 9 December 2021 |
| Marriage Place | Six Senses Fort Barwara, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan |
| Family | |
| Husband/Spouse | Vicky Kaushal |
| Parents | Father- Mohammed Kaif (British businessman of Kashmiri descent) Mother- Suzanne Turquotte (Harvard Graduate, English Teacher and a Lawyer) |
| Siblings | Brother- Michael Kaif (Elder, A professional skier and a rock climber) Sister(s)- • Stephanie (elder) • Christine (elder) • Natasha (elder) • Melissa (younger) • Sonia (younger) • Isabel (younger) |
| Favourites | |
| Food | Yorkshire pudding, cheesecake, kheer, cinnamon rolls, steamed fish, lamb chops with salad & baby potatoes, grilled vegetables |
| Indian Food | Dosa |
| Cheat Meal Food | Pancake |
| Actors | Hrithik Roshan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson |
| Actress | Penelope Cruz, Madhuri Dixit and Kajol |
| Films | Bollywood Films: Umrao Jaan, Dil Dhadakne Do, Tanu Weds Manu Returns Hollywood Films: Casablanca, Gone with the Wind |
| Cricketer | Rahul Dravid, Irrfan Pathan |
| Books | All books by Sidney Sheldon |
| Colours | Pink, White, Mauve |
| Sports | Cricket, Chess |
| Song | Moon by Poolside |
| Musicians/Bands | Radiohead, Muse, Coldplay |
| Perfume | Narciso Rodriguez For Her |
| Musicians/Bands | in Mumbai: Mainland China, and Wasabi by Morimoto at The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in London: Hakkasan, Harrods Georgian Restaurant, Alloro, Aqua Kyoto |
| Travel Destinations | London, Italy, Spain, Dubai and Havana |
| Style Quotient | |
| Car Collection | • Land Rover Range Rover Vogue SE • Audi Q7 • Audi Q3 |
| Money Factor | |
| Salary (approx.) | $8.5 thousand (INR 6 crores per film) |
| Net Worth (approx.) | $6 million (INR 4.46 crores) |
He is very decent and comes from a good family and they went their own ways because of issues which are personal. He is an affluent person, so he is not going to come back because his daughter is now famous.
Her Ex-boyfriend, Ranbir Kapoor gave her the nickname Sambo (Rambo’s sister Sambo) after she successfully did a scene in the film Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009) where she had to climb a ladder placed at a height of 200 feet.
,-Biography,-Wiki,-Age,-Boyfriend-&-More-134.jpg "Surabhi-Samriddhi Mehra (Chinky Minky), Biography, Wiki, Age, Boyfriend & More")
