One of India’s top stars doesn’t even hail from India. Katrina Kaif, who has a Kashmiri father and a British mother, was born in Hong Kong and raised in Hawaii and London, where her family currently lives (she is one of eight children). She was modeling in London when she was discovered by a Bollywood filmmaker who cast her in Boom in 2003. She moved to Mumbai to pursue a film career, even though she couldn’t speak Hindi (she learned it on the fly). She had a small role in the Godfather-remake Sarkar (2005) and then appeared as the lead in Maine Pyar Kiya (2005), opposite Salman Khan, with whom she has a rocky romantic relationship. She has since appeared with Salman Khan in Partner (2007) and Yuvvraaj (2008), Akshay Kumar in Namastey London (2007) and Singh is Kinng (2008), Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna in Race (2008), and John Abraham in New York (2009). She is the model for Mattel’s Bollywood Barbie.
