Katrina Kaif

Katrina Kaif was born as Katrina Turquotte on July 16, 1983 in Hong Kong to British-Indian businessman Mohammed Kaif and British lawyer and social worker Suzanne Turquotte. After her father moved to US leaving the family, her mother raised her and her seven siblings: elder brother, Michael; elder sisters, Stephanie, Christine, and Natasha; and younger sisters, Melissa, Sonia, and Isabel.

Her mother frequently moved from one country to another for her charity work, because of which she and her siblings were homeschooled. During her childhood, she spent months in places like Hong Kong, China, Japan, France, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium and Hawaii before settling in London.

Katrina Kaif started her career as a model at the age of seventeen after winning a beauty contest in Hawaii, following which she started to appear at London Fashion Week. There, she was spotted by London-based filmmaker Kaizad Gustad, who offered her a role in the 2003 erotic heist film 'Boom'.

In 2003, she walked the ramp at the India Fashion Week for fashion designer Rohit Bal and was featured in the first Kingfisher Calendar. However, she was dropped from the 2003 Mahesh Bhatt film 'Saaya' for her poor command over Hindi, but managed to bag a role in the Telugu film 'Malliswari' in 2004.

She started 2005 with a short role in the political thriller 'Sarkar' and later got her breakthrough role in the David Dhawan-directed romantic comedy, 'Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?', which earned her critical acclaim. While it was her first of many films with Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, the next year she started another long-running collaboration with action hero Akshay Kumar with the film 'Humko Deewana Kar Gaye'.

In 2007, she cemented her foothold in Bollywood with four successful films in which she went past her "adorable screen presence" to appear in substantial roles. She starred opposite Akshay Kumar in 'Namastey London', worked with the Deols in 'Apne', teamed up again with David Dhawan and Salman Khan in 'Partner', and appeared in 'Welcome' featuring an ensemble cast including Akshay Kumar.

In 2008, she worked with Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna in Abbas-Mustan's action thriller 'Race' and again with Akshay Kumar in 'Singh Is Kinng', both of which earned her mixed to negative reviews. She was praised for her convincing portrayal of a cello player in her next film opposite Salman Khan, 'Yuvvraaj', for which she practiced with orchestra members, but the film failed at the box office.

Katrina Kaif's 2013 film 'Dhoom 3' became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time until then, grossing rupees 585 crore worldwide. A number of her other films were also box-office hits, including 'Raajneeti', 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara', 'Ek Tha Tiger' and 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan'.