Katrina Kaif: Lesser known facts
- Katrina was raised by a single mother, Suzanne Turquotte with her 7 siblings. Out of all the 8 children of Suzanne, Katrina is the only one who is half-Indian as her father, Mohammed Kaif, a British citizen, is originally from Kashmir. [4]
- Because of the fact that Katrina’s mother, Suzanne Turquotte used to teach English as a foreign subject in different countries, they had to move to different countries. Katrina was raised in Hong Kong, China, Japan, France, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium, and other European countries. Her family moved to Hawaii and then to her mother’s home country, England when she was 14, where she lived for 3 years before moving to India.
- Katrina’s parents got separated when she was very young, her father has never contacted them after the separation. When asked about whether her father has ever tried to contact her after she became famous, Katrina replied:
He is very decent and comes from a good family and they went their own ways because of issues which are personal. He is an affluent person, so he is not going to come back because his daughter is now famous.
- She never attended a regular school because of frequent relocations of her family.
- Mother Suzanne made a singing troupe with her children to sing at orphanages all over Asia.
- When she was 14 years old, she won a beauty contest in Hawaii, after which she started receiving modeling assignments.
- She came to Mumbai, accompanied by her sister, Christine in 2003 to audition for the film Boom.
- Katrina and her sister, Christine, came to Mumbai with Rs. 4 lakh. Christine returned back to London but Katrina decided to stay in Mumbai to make her career in Bollywood and if she runs out of money, she would go back and re-join her college in London.
- Katrina Kaif’s original name is Katrina Turquotte but her debut film, Boom’s director, Kaizad Gustad and producer, Ayesha Shroff (wife of Jackie Shroff) decided to give her a new name which could connect with the Indian audience, he decided to change her surname to “Kaif.”[5]
- She was supposed to make her Bollywood debut with the film Saaya, opposite John Abraham, but later she was dropped because she couldn’t speak Hindi at that time. The same year, she made her Bollywood debut with erotic film Boom.
- She struggled in Bollywood at the beginning but got breakthrough with the film Namastey London opposite Akshay Kumar in 2007.
- The silver dress that she wore in the film Welcome (2007) was worth 2 lakh (INR) ($4,814), which was gifted to her by an Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci.
- She was the most Googled Indian celebrity in 2008, 2009 & 2010.
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Her Ex-boyfriend, Ranbir Kapoor gave her the nickname Sambo (Rambo’s sister Sambo) after she successfully did a scene in the film Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009) where she had to climb a ladder placed at a height of 200 feet.
- In 2010, she teamed up with A.R. Rahman and released a music album called Rhymeskool, to raise funds to build a school in Madurai.
- She is superstitious and often visits religious places like Siddhivinayak Temple and Mount Mary Church in Mumbai, and Dargah Sharif in Ajmer before her film’s release.
- She still is a British citizen and works in India on an employment visa.
- Her mother, Suzanne, with her American partner Jesse Tincher are now settled in Chennai, they volunteer for social causes in India. Katrina is actively involved with her mother’s charitable trust, “Relief Projects India”, that helps abandoned baby girls and works against female infanticide.
- Katrina fears living alone and darkness, during her early days in Mumbai, she used to stay awake and wait for the sun to come up and then sleep for 5 hours.