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.
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.
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.
source is http://www.justonbollywood.com/katrina-kaifs-story-in-her-own-words/#comment-53171
