Bollywood
Happy Birthday Katrina!
30 Facts about Katrina Kaif
1 Boom was reportedly not supposed to
be Katrina’s first film. She was first cast by
Mahesh Bhatt in Saaya but later dropped,
because she couldn’t speak Hindi at all.
She then made her debut in Boom, in
2003.
2 In 2013, Katrina was the only woman
who eatured in the Top 10 of the Indian
f
version of Forbes — Celebrity 100 — a
list based on the income and opularity
p
of India’s biggest entertainers—with an
estimated annual earning of Rs. 66cr.
3 For her Telugu film Malliswari (2004),
she reportedly charged Rs. 75 lakh, the
highest amount paid to a female actor at
that time, in South India inema.
c
4 Katrina is half British and half Indian.
Her father, Mohammed Kaif, is a Brit
businessman of Kashmiri descent. She
has six sisters and one brother.
5 In her debut film, Boom’s producer
Ayesha Shroff changed her second name
from Turquotte to Kaif, as she felt that it
wasn’t easy to ronounce. “We wanted
p
to give her a surname which would be
accepted by the Indian audience. We
thought of naming her Katrina Kazi,
but then we thought Kazi would have a
religious overtone. So we finalised on
Kaif,” said Shroff.
6 Katrina was born in Hong Kong but
lived in Hawaii till she was 14, before
moving to England, and finally Mumbai.
She has travelled across China, France,
Switzerland, Poland, Japan, Belgium,
Poland and other European countries.
7 Katrina was home-schooled by
her mother Suzanne, with the aid of
correspondence courses.
8 Katrina began modelling professionally
Mumbai, and Dargah Sharif in Ajmer
before her films’ release.
10 Katrina has also been an active
p
hilanthropist, who is involved in her
mom’s charitable trust — the Relief
Projects India, that rescues abandoned
baby girls and works against female
infanticide.|
11
In 2011, after years of denial about
dating Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif finally
accepted the relationship. “Salman Khan
was my first serious relationship,” she
said.
12
In 2010, she teamed up with music
composer AR Rahman and released
a music album, Rhymeskool, to raise
money for building a school in Madurai.
13
19 She is the first Bollywood actor to
have a Barbie doll modelled on her.
20
Kat has won 23 awards across
various award eremonies till date.
c
21 Katrina reportedly charges Rs. 5cr for
an endorsement. At the same time, she
is very choosy about what she promotes.
“It is important for me that the product I
endorse should deliver on its promise,”
she said.
22 In 2011 and 2013, Katrina Kaif was
named the most searched celebrity
(Indian) on the internet. In 2011 she beat
popular social activist, Anna Hazare and
last year, she even beat her ex, Salman
Khan in this race.
Katrina reportedly has a few
properties in England but apparently, she
doesn’t have any roperty in India. She
p
lives in a rented apartment in Bandra,
Mumbai.
23 Her favourite bands are Muse,
Radiohead and Coldplay.
14
DiCaprio and Johnny Depp. She’s also
very fond of Kajol and Madhuri Dixit.
Katrina has been living in India for
over a decade now, but being a British
citizen, she works on an employment visa
here.
15 After Boom flopped and Katrina
was heavily criticised, she was quoted
as saying, “I was living in England and
it is acceptable there to show kissing
and bodies in bikinis or skimpy clothes
onscreen, but that is certainly not the
case in India. I realise that with your first
film you make an nitial impression on the
i
audience. And that was definitely not the
role I wanted to be seen in.”
16 Katrina has worked in 21 Bollywood
films so far, of which she has appeared
alongside actor Akshay Kumar in the
maxinum number of films (six).
in London, and during one of the fashion
shows as a part of London Fashion
Week, it is believed that filmmaker Kaizad
Gustad saw Katrina for the first time and
offered her Boom (2003).
17 Apart from working in Hindi films,
Katrina has worked in two Telugu films
and one Malayalam film with Malyalee
superstar, Mammootty.
9 Katrina is slightly superstitious. She
18
apparently visits the Siddhivinayak
Temple and Mount Mary Church in
sites including Twitter and Facebook.
Katrina has been quoted saying that
she is a very private person, and hence
she is not on major social networking
24 Katrina is a big admirer of Leonardo
25 According to online reports, Katrina is
afraid of the dark.
26 She is an avid chess player and is
also fond of painting.
27 The famous Rs. 2 lakh ($4,814) worth
silver dress she flaunts in the movie
Welcome (2007) was gifted to her by
noted Italian fashion designer Emilio
Pucci.
28
She likes English food and is very
fond of Yorkshire pudding.
29 Katrina doesn’t like being called ‘Kat’.
“Honestly, I don’t like it when people call
me Kat, I don’t know who coined this
name,” she once said.
30 One of Katrina’s younger sisters,
Isabel Kaif, has studied in Lee Strasberg
Theatre and Film Institute of New York,
the same institute where Katrina’s current
rumoured partner Ranbir Kapoor studied.
August 2014
47