Five years ago, a teenager
landed in Mumbai to make a
career in showbiz. Today,
Katrina Kaif has becoming one
of the most successful
actresses in the film industry. In its latest issue, People
magazine got up close and
personal with the beautiful
actress to know more. We
present an excerpt: It was five years ago that
Katrina Kaif, then 19, arrived
in Mumbai to make a career in
the modelling industry.
Accompanying her were
mother Susana and sisters Christine and Isabella. She did
not celebrate her birthday
that year. This year as she
turned 24 on July 16, almost
the entire film industry A-list
descended at Olive Bar & Kitchen, a Mumbai restaurant
and bar, to wish the model-
turned-actress. “I was all alone on my first birthday in Mumbai. I hardly
stepped out of my house, as I
didn’t know anyone then, ” says the actress. This year it
was celebrated, according to a
guest, with flavoured
Martinis, an assortment of
mocktails, lamb chop, balsamic
mushroom, grilled prawns and rock salt fish doing the
rounds. Katrina had over 70 people
including stars, star wives,
star kids, filmmakers,
producers, designers and
choreographers attending her
private bash. Not surprisingly Katrina says it is only this
year that she feels a sense of
belonging to the industry.
That she speaks Hindi and has
a string of box-office hits can
only add to her being at home. “I know so many people now. I ’m a part of the circuit and also part of discussions for
movies that are being
planned. I’m aware of what ’s happening around,” she says. A large part of the credit in
making Katrina feel
comfortable in the film
fraternity goes to beau
Salman Khan, who is dating
the model-turned-actress for a little over four years now. Because of Salman, she got
to work with the right
people ’ It was former supermodel
and choreographer Alison
Kanuga, who got Katrina
introduced to Salman at his
sister Alvira ’s birthday party at Salman ’s apartment. “She met Salman for the very first time at Alvira ’s birthday party. Since Katrina and I
were already friends I asked
her to come along with me to
the party, ” says Alison, who met Katrina at a film screening
in Mumbai. Salman, who was then
distraught after parting ways
with Aishwarya Rai, took an
instant liking to her and the
duo ended up spending the
entire evening together. That chance meeting led to another
and in a matter of few days
Salman was wooing Katrina.
Soon they were in a serious
relationship. Whenever she got off work
early, Katrina rushed to meet
her boyfriend at film studios
and his apartment. They
started hanging out at coffee
shops in Bandra, and going for long walks with Salman ’s pet dogs Myson and Myjaan along
the Bandstand promenade.
But what she enjoyed the
most was taking bike rides
with her boyfriend in the wee
hours of the morning. As their love became stronger, Salman
started supervising her, while
she was readying to move
from modelling to films. “By then she was already a popular name in the modelling
circuit. She thought that
making a progression to films
will be a good idea, ” says an industry insider. It was only under Salman ’s guidance that she clinched a
big role opposite him in
brother Sohail Khan ’s production, Maine Pyaar Kyun
Kiya in 2005. The film made
good business at the box
office and her chemistry with
Salman prompted other
filmmakers to woo her with film scripts. Director David Dhawan, who
was looking for a fresh face
for MPKK, signed her on
instantly once he met her. He
says, “Yes, I met her through Salman. She had a fresh face
and she suited the role. [Also]
She has a great memory. Even
though she wasn ’t well versed in the language, she
used to mug her lines very
well. ” Filmmaker and president of
AMPTPP (Association of
Motion Pictures and TV
Program Producers), Pahlaj
Nihalani, who met Katrina
when she was running from pillar to post to get her visa
extended, attributes UK-
citizen Katrina ’s stupendous success to Salman Khan and his
family. He says, “Because of Salman she got to work with the
right people and in the right
manner… I will give full credit to Salman and his family for
providing her with shelter,
professional advice and
guidance.” With her family away in
London, she started confiding
in and socialising with
Salman’s family members. “They are a part of the social circle that I move in. They are
tremendously wonderful
people,” says Katrina, who is particularly fond of her beau ’s siblings Alvira Khan Agnihotri
and Sohail Khan. ‘I didn ’t know anyone except for Amitji ’ For Katrina, who was born in
Hong Kong, raised in Hawaii
and London, the Indian film
industry never really existed
until she got here. “I didn’t know anyone except for Amitji [Amitabh
Bachchan]. He had a statue at
Madame Tussauds. If someone
was introduced to me as very
successful, I gave them the
appropriate respect, ” says Katrina, who watched her
first Hindi film at the age of
19. It was her urge to embrace
the work ethics of a film
industry in a distant country
that made filmmakers take
notice of her. She made a
forgettable debut in 2003 with Kaizad Gustad ’s Boom; the movie tanked at the box
office, but people wanted to
see more of the leggy lass.
Jackie Shroff, her first co-star
(in Boom), knew that she was
destined to be a popular star. “On the first day of the shoot, she was lost and lonely. But
once we started shooting she
was all ears to the director.
During the schedule, I realised
that she was disciplined and
focused, ” he says. On the other hand, Katrina
was overwhelmed by the
warmth of her co-stars, who
looked after her. “I was so shocked by the warmth of
the city and the people, ” says Katrina, who found friends in
supermodel Madhu Sapre and
designer and stylist Anna
Singh on the sets of the film. Anna says, “I guided her as much as I could. On the sets of
Boom, I used to feed her and
make her familiar with names
of actors and directors. By the
end of the film, she had put on
a good three to four kilos. ” Realising that Indo-English
films like Boom only catered
to a niche audience, she
started taking interest in
mainstream Hindi films. She
started learning Hindi with the help of a tutor. “I first learnt how to read the language and once I got a
grasp of it, I could read scripts
in Hindi. It took me about
two-and-a-half years to
improve on the reading, ” says the actress, who can
comfortably communicate
with her staff in Hindi. ‘I used to cry buckets of tears ’ Katrina ’s big moment came with her pairing with Akshay
Kumar in Humko Deewana
Kar Gaye (2006). It gave her
career the required impetus. Vipul Shah, who took notice
of her in a Samsung
commercial was hell-bent on
having her opposite Akshay
for Namastey London, which
went on to become one of the biggest hits of last year. The producer of Singh is
Kinng, another Akshay-
Katrina starrer, says, “She is extremely professional and
her perfectionist streak has
led her to taste success so
early in her career. ” While she kept signing one
film after the other, her
personal life took a back seat.
Salman and she had their share
of misunderstandings.
Increasing outdoor schedules only added to the stress. “I used to call my mum everyday, and she was in
London then. I can ’t tell you what it was about. But at
times it used to be like the end
of the world. I used to cry
buckets of tears, ” says Katrina, who feels that she is
no longer as sensitive and
emotional as she used to be. But reticent she continues to
be. She won ’t comment on Salman’s former love, Aishwarya Rai and despite
going strong with Salman for
almost four years, she has
never publicly admitted to the
relationship. “I don’t [talk about my relationship] because Salman
wouldn ’t do it. Ask Salman a question about me and he
wouldn ’t answer. ” She doesn’t deny the hiccups in her relationship, as reported
by the tabloids, when she
says: “I’m sure I have been taken for granted but no one
is to be blamed for that
except for myself. If you
cannot give yourself that
respect then how can other
people give you that respect ?” ‘I feel more confident today since I have
achieved something ’ Her answers do not divulge
much, but between the lines
there is a lot. She says, “What I have found [from my
experience] is that you can
forgive someone for doing
something like that [wrong].
You can honestly feel that
you have forgiven them but later on in life, those things
will eat away [the
relationship]. ” The actress didn ’t sleep all night after Salman and Shah
Rukh ’s spat at her birthday party this year. A friend of
the actress says, “She is recovering from it. She is
trying her best to behave
normally. ” Talking about the episode
Katrina says: “You cannot have control on everything in
life. Things happen …” Will she have a similar bash
next year? “I don’t know. I think I will, ” says the actress, who received a diamond
bracelet from Salman on her
birthday. She continues to
work on her relationship and
tries to spend as much time as
she can with Salman. Recently, she was in a hurry
to finish a shoot so that she
could watch an episode of 10
Ka Dum featuring Govinda and
David Dhawan with Salman.
The two cuddled up while watching the episode at
Salman’s house, and later cracked jokes while having
dinner, say sources. “She has a whacky sense of humour. There are certain
jokes that only the two of us
can appreciate, ” says her close friend Arjun Kapoor.
However, the couple is not
working together in too
many films. “It’s the best thing and we are doing what
is best for everyone right
now, ” says Katrina, currently taping for Subhash Ghai ’s Yuvraaj with Salman. “I feel more confident today since I have achieved
something, ” says Katrina. Even as rumours of her
alleged closeness to Akshay
Kumar continue, she lays it all
at fate ’s door. “Yes, all our films have done well, and they have [mostly]
released in the last one-and-a-
half years. But that ’s destiny, not in my hands or Salman ’s hands or Akshay ’s hands.” And sure there rings some
truth about the hand of fate
for an anonymous and
aspiring model, who in five
years has moved to becoming
the most successful Hindi film heroine of 2008
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