Katrina Kaif, born Katrina Rosemary Turcotte on 16 July 1983 in British Hong Kong, is a British actress and businesswoman who works in Hindi-language films. She is one of India’s highest-paid actresses, and her accolades include four Screen Awards and four Zee Cine Awards, along with three Filmfare nominations. Critics’ views of her acting have varied, but she is noted for her roles in action films and for her dancing.
Her mother, Suzanne, is an English lawyer and charity worker, and her father, Mohammad Kaif, is of Kashmiri descent. She has said that he had no influence on her or her siblings and that they were raised by their mother. She has seven siblings, including three older sisters, three younger sisters and an older brother. Because her mother is a social activist, the family moved between countries, including China, Japan, France, Switzerland, Poland and Belgium, and they were home-schooled by a series of tutors, before settling in London for three years.
At 14 she won a beauty contest in Hawaii and received her first modelling assignment, for a jewellery campaign, and she then modelled professionally in London and walked at London Fashion Week. At a fashion show there, the filmmaker Kaizad Gustad noticed her and cast her in Boom (2003) alongside Amitabh Bachchan, which was a critical and commercial failure. Staying in India, she built a modelling career, appearing for Rohit Bal at India Fashion Week and in the first Kingfisher calendar, and endorsing brands including Coca-Cola, LG, Fevicol and Samsung.
After the Telugu film Malliswari (2004), she found commercial success in Hindi cinema with the romantic comedies Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya? (2005) and Namastey London (2007). She earned Filmfare Best Actress nominations for the thriller New York (2009) and the comedy Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (2011), and appeared in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009), Raajneeti (2010) and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011).
The action thrillers Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Dhoom 3 (2013) and Bang Bang! (2014) were among the highest-grossing Indian films of that decade. After a brief setback, Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), Sooryavanshi (2021) and Tiger 3 (2023) and the drama Bharat (2019) were box-office hits. Her role as an alcoholic actress in Zero (2018) won her the Zee Cine Award for Best Supporting Actress, and her performance in the mystery thriller Merry Christmas (2024) was well received.
Outside films she launched the cosmetics line Kay Beauty in 2019, and she is a regular brand endorser. She was a consistent entry in Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 list through the 2010s. She takes part in stage shows and is involved with her mother’s charity, Relief Projects India, which helps underprivileged children. She is married to the actor Vicky Kaushal, and they have a son.
Questions about her background have followed her. A producer of Boom, Ayesha Shroff, said in a 2011 interview that the Kashmiri surname was chosen for her early publicity, which Kaif called hurtful and denied. Wikipedia records both statements. Kaif’s career is notable because she entered Hindi cinema with limited Hindi, and over two decades became a star whose action films and dance numbers drew some of the largest audiences in Bollywood.
Featured image: Katrina Kaif in Cuba, March 2011 (file photo). Photo by Ashfaqmajeed, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
