Katrina Kaif

Date/ Place of birth:
16 July 1984, London, Great Britain

Relationship Status:
Dating

Spouse/ Partner:
Salman Khan

Debut Film:
Boom (2003)

Katrina Kaif is one of eight siblings - all girls, from a mother who is a Caucasian of British Nationality, and a father who was formerly from Kashmir, India, but who has since acquired British citizenship. Katrina grew up in Hawaii, but was brought up in London, UK. Katrina started modeling accidentally when she was in Hawaii at the tender age of 14. She came to Mumbai and started her career with modeling. She signed ‘Boom’, but it was not successful.

Katrina is a private person and doesn't go to too many parties. She is also very particular about her clothes. She wears bold outfits on screen or for ads but she feels more comfortable in not-so-revealing clothes otherwise. She finished her Kathak classes in 40 days in which she had to dance for seven hours non-stop everyday.

Her films like Namastey London, Partner and Apne have garnered positive reviews. Katrina has now made Bombay her base, and doesn't mind singing and dancing around trees. While she's at it, she is determined to make it big in Bollywood.

Kareena Kapoor

Date/ Place of birth:
21 September 1981, Bombay, Maharashtra, India

Relationship Status:
Dating

Spouse/ Partner:
Saif Ali Khan

Debut Film:
Refugee (2000)

The kid sibling of Karisma Kapoor, second daughter of Randhir Kapoor & Babita- Kareena Kapoor, made a splash in Bollywood much sooner than her sister and predecessors. Her grand entry in tinsel-ville with J.P Dutta’s ‘Refugee’ didn’t come as a sprinting surprise, instead, followers of the legendary Kapoor clan were waiting for Kareena to take charge of the baton, and take the family’s filmi legacy ahead. Though her much hyped debut vehicle with Abhishek Bachchan didn’t take a flying start, and won nothing but the carp and condemn of critics, Kareena soon become the hottest thing to have happened to Bollywood. Offers started spilling from cracks and corners of the movie world and the young Ms.Kapoor was the toast of the day. Of course, her line-up of films that followed faced the same fate at the box office as the first, and the trend continued.

‘Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai’, ‘Yaadein’, ‘Ajnabee’, ‘Asoka’ and ‘Ajnabee’ all presented by sought-after banners received damp responses from the audiences. In 2001, Karan Johar’s larger than life, family drama ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’ turned out to be Kareena’s first hit, of course, she demanded very little of the credit for the success, it was the Shah Rukh-Kajol magic all the way, along with Hrithik Roshan’s magnetic charm and Amitabh Bachchan’s undisputable poise . ‘K3G’ fetched Kareena another title, that of ‘Poo’, the character of a funky college girl she played in the film. In spite of her rumoured off-screen attraction with Hrithik, their on-screen pairing, though appealing to the audiences, overall, the films faced thumbs down. Again in 2003, we witnessed ‘Main Prem Ki Diwani’ with Kareena, Hrithik and Abhishek; touted as the next biggest family entertainer from the Sooraj Barjatya kitty after ‘Hum Aapke Hai Kaun’ of course, met the expectations of the industry and moviegoers with utter dismay. Each time her films faces brickbats, Kareena retorts, that her scripts have failed her, she has never failed her scripts. That’s the kind of conviction she has in herself.

Nonetheless, Kareena’s demand in the film industry remained invincible through the last few years. And finally, a small-budget film like ‘Chameli’ did the screen image-makeover over for Bollywood’s glamorous ‘Poo’. Kareena received critical acclaim for a role of a commercial sex-worker, a character that any other actress of her age at the prime time of her career would shudder to take on. But it’s this daring role that changed her image from Poo to ‘Chameli’, a positive turn in her career, one that Kareena is exceedingly proud of.

‘36 China Town’ was Kareena's first release in 2006 followed by ‘Chup Chup Ke’. Both films managed to do moderately well at the box office. Her performance as Desdemona in the Indian adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello, ‘Omkara’ was praised from audiences as well as the critics earning her a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance and a Star Screen Award for Best Actress. Her performance in the film also landed her various nominations in the best actress category including the Filmfare Awards. Her latest release, ‘Don - The Chase Begins Again’ has done extremely well at the box office. She won favorable reviews both for her acting and her dancing in her item number. Kapoor has joined several touring stage shows throughout the years. Her latest tour, the Rockstars Concert of May 2006, in which she performed alongside Salman Khan, Zayed Khan, John Abraham, Shahid Kapoor, Esha Deol and Mallika Sherawat turned out to be a huge success overseas.

She’s been dating Shahid Kapur, son of actor Pankaj Kapur. They also acted together in quiet a few films. However, post working for thier first lovestory, Jab We Met, the two broke up. Currently she is dating Saif Ali Khan. The two will be seen together in the yet to be released film Tashan and a couple of more untitled ones.

For Kareena, her family means the world to her, and Bebo as she is lovingly called, draws her strength from her mother – Babita and sister – Karisma. Her sister having moved to Delhi with her husband, Kareena misses her immensely, but at the back of her mind she knows her sister is watching her all the time, all the way. After all, it’s all about loving your family...

Imran Khan

Date/Place of Birth:

3 January 1983, USA

Relationship Status:
Dating

Spouse/Partner:
Avantika

Debut Film:
Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na (2008)

Imran Khan is an American-born Bollywood film star. He is also the nephew of superstar Aamir Khan.

Khan is the son of Anil Pal and Nuzhat Khan. Anil, who works as a senior manager at Yahoo in Silicon Valley, was a classmate of director Mansoor Khan, Nuzhat's brother, at IIT Bombay. Anil and Nuzhat married but divorced when Imran was one and half years old. He grew up with the surname Khan as his mother brought him up in India. However, he moved to live with his father in California, to finish high school. He then trained in film making in New York. He is also the nephew of actor Aamir Khan, director Mansoor Khan and the grandson of Nasir Hussain who was a noted director and producer. While living in India, he studied at Bombay Scottish School, Mahim in Mumbai, and for a brief period in Bangalore.

Khan made appearances as a child artist in his uncle Aamir's films Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander (1992). Both times he played the role of a young Aamir Khan. He aspired to be a director, as that was his original plan before he entered Bollywood as an actor. Khan joined Kishore Namit Kapoor's Acting Institute in Mumbai.

He made his debut as a lead actor in the 2008 film Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, which was produced by his uncle Aamir Khan and co-starred Genelia D'Souza as the heroine. The film received excellent reviews from the critics and was successful at the box office. His next movie was Kidnap with Sanjay Dutt and Minissha Lamba where he play's his first villain role. The teen sensation will make his next appearance in Luck with Shruti Haasan and Sanjay Dutt.His forthcoming movie Delhi Belly is about a NRI coming back to India and getting involved in all sorts situations, it is a comedy.

Karan Johar

Date/ Place of birth:
25 May 1972, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Relationship Status:
Single

Spouse/ Partner:
None

Debut Film:
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998)

Karan Johar is the son of film producers Yash Johar and Hiroo Johar. He studied at the Greenlawns High School and attended H.R. College in Mumbai, India. Dharma Productions, founded by his father, is his production company. As a child, Johar was mainly influenced by commercial Indian cinema, and he cites Raj Kapoor, Yash Chopra and Sooraj R. Barjatya as his inspirations.

Johar formally entered the film industry as an actor. He was seen as Raj's (played by Shahrukh Khan) close friend in the blockbuster movie Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). He was also assistant director on this film and helped director Aditya Chopra in writing the screenplay for this film. In addition, he selected Shahrukh Khan's costumes, something he continued to do for Shahrukh Khan's other movies like Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Duplicate (1998), Mohabbatein (2000), Main Hoon Na and Veer-Zaara (2004) and Om Shanti Om (2007).

He made his directorial debut with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai starring Shah Rukh, Kajol and Rani Mukherjee in 1998. The film was a major box office hit and won eight Filmfare Awards in 1998.

His second directorial effort, the multi-starrer family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was released in 2001. The film starring Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, SRK and Kajol, and Kareena Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan was also highly successful. K3G, as the film is commonly abbreviated, went on to win five Filmfare Awards.

In 2003, he produced and wrote the script for another extremely successful film Kal Ho Naa Ho, Jaya Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta in the lead which was directed by Nikhil Advani, his assistant director from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

In early 2005, he co-produced another movie with Shahrukh Khan- Kaal. This film was directed by Soham Shah, Johar's assistant director from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Johar did not write the script for Kaal. In May 2005, after taking a four-year break from directing, he began working on his third film as a director and fourth film as writer; Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna with Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta, Abhishek Bachchan and Kirron Kher.

‘KJo’ is also the host of a television chat show called Koffee with Karan in which he interviews Bollywood’s most happening celebs and India's glamour world. The first season of the show began in 2004 and ended in 2006. The 2nd season began to air in February 2007 and ended in August. On September 30, 2006, Johar became the first Indian filmmaker to be a jury member in the Miss World competition, in Warsaw, Poland. Karan Johar was chosen as one of 250 Global Young Leaders by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum 2006.

Karan’s latest blockbuster- Dostana (2008) starring Priyanka Chopra, Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham centres around true friendship. The film has Abhishek and John famously ‘pretending to be gay’.

John Abraham

Date/Place of Birth:
17 December,1972,Mumbai, India

Relationship Status:
Dating

Spouse/Partner:
Bipasha Basu

Debut Film:
Jism (2003 )

<sup>John Abraham is one of the most successful male models in India. Abraham's father is a Malayali Syrian Christian architect, from Alwaye, Kerala in India. His mother, Phiroza Irani, is part of Bombay's Parsi community. Abraham's Parsi name is Farhan but his father gave him the name John. He has one younger brother, Alan.

Abraham first went to the Bombay Scottish School and later to Jai Hind College, where he completed his BA (Hons) in economics.[1] He was an avid sportsman, captaining the college football team. He earned his MMS degree from Mumbai Educational Trust.</sup>

Abraham started his career with the media firm Time & Space Media Entertainment Promotions Ltd., which however closed down due to financial problems. Later, he worked for Enterprises-Nexus as a media planner.

In 1999, he won the Gladrags Manhunt Contest and went to Singapore for Manhunt International, where he won second place. Following this, he appeared in a number of commercial advertisements. To further hone his acting skills, John Abraham joined Kishore Namit Kapoor acting lab and successfully completed a course on acting while juggling modelling assignments.

John during his early days

Abraham made his film debut in 2003 with the controversial film Jism. The film did well, and his work was noticed widely.

Later the same year, came the paranormal Saaya (2003) and the romantic Paap (2004); neither of them did well at box-office. John's first blockbuster hit came with the movie Dhoom in 2004 where he played the role of the villain 'Kabir'.

In 2005 he starred in the supernatural thriller Kaal and the comedy Garam Masala both of which did well at the box office. [4] Later that year he had a major role in the critically acclaimed film Water, which portrayed the tragic fate of Hindu widows in colonial India (See British India). The film was written and directed by independent Canadian film-maker Deepa Mehta. The film was popular overseas, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Academy Awards, which exposed John to a more international audience.

In the summer of 2006, he performed at the "Rockstars Concert" along with fellow bollywood stars, Salman Khan, Zayed Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Esha Deol, Shahid Kapoor and Mallika Sherawat.In the same year, he starred in the films Zinda, Taxi No 9211, Baabul and Kabul Express (2006).Among these Taxi No 9211 , Kabul Express were substantially successful.

Nikhil Advani's multi-starrer, Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love was Abraham's first release in 2007. The movie failed to do well at the Indian box office,[7] but was successful in the overseas market.[8] His last two 2007 releases were the offbeat thriller No Smoking and the sports film Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal.

John is playing an environmentalist activist in Deepa Mehta's new film Luna (currently under production) starring Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz and Chris Cooper.
Abraham with girlfriend Bipasha Basu at the launch of the Filmfare magazine (2007)

Apart from his movie commitments, John is also the brand ambassador for Castrol Power 1 , Yamaha Marque, Wrangler, Fastrack, Clinic All clear, and Pepsi.

Lara Dutta

Date/ Place of birth:
16 April 1978, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Relationship Status:
Dating

Spouse/ Partner:
Dino Morea

Debut Film:
Andaaz (2003)

Lara Dutta, the first Miss Universe of the new millennium, was born to Wing Commander L.K. Dutta and Jennifer Dutta, in Ghaziabad. Lara is a model by profession. At the age of 16 she moved from Bangalore to come to Mumbai and realize her dreams.

Before Miss Universe happened, she was a successful print and ramp model. She was first discovered by Gladrags' annual modeling competition. After winning Miss Intercontinental in Germany, she started to build up a very successful modeling career on a national scale. She appeared in ads for Synergy, Ceat, Coke and Sprite which made her popular. She participated in the Miss Femina India contest and won the title which paved her way to the Miss Universe Crown. A mix between Punjabi and Scottish parents, this stunning beauty always emerged a winner.

Lara has embarked on another path the road to stardom in Bollywood. As the reigning Miss Universe, she traveled across the world on behalf of the Miss Universe Organisation to promote their official cause of building AIDS/HIV awareness.

Till recently she was dating model-actor Kelly Dorji. However, they recently broke-up, owing to her alleged affair with her Jhoom Barabar Jhoom co-star, Bobby Deol

Amitabh Bachchan

Date/ Place of birth:
11 October 1942, Allahabad, UP, India

Relationship Status:
Married

Spouse/ Partner:
Jaya Bachchan

Debut Film:
Saat Hindustani

Born on the 11th of October 1942 in Allahabad unto Harivanshrai Bachchan and Teji Bachchan and having an academic parentage, Amitabh was the last person one would think of as being the star he is now.

However today every kid knows the name of the one and only Amitabh Bachchan and fondly refers to him the Big B. Prior to his entry into Bollywood he was a freight broker with Shaw and Wallace. Amitabh did his schooling in Sherwood College followed by an Arts degree from the Delhi University.

Amitabh decided to persue fame by entering into the film industry. However this was no easy task for him and was rejected because of his dark skin . Not loosing hope he approached various radio companies for the post of radio commentator, but was turned down again. Finally after a long wait he got a role in his first Hindi movie Saat Hindustani, but the film was a flop and was put on hold for further films.

Being a close friend of Rajeev Gandhi he got a letter recommending him for a film, this was how he entered the big screen. The first movie Zanjeer, he was in had him co-star with his wife-to-be Jaya Badhuri, ever since then it was no looking back for this actor with a deep baritone voice and films just kept coming in one after another. From a modest struggling start to this superstar status was quite a jump for him.

Amitabh married Jaya and had two kids Shweta and Abhishek; he continued to star in films and turned out a record number of hits and super hits. At this time all his movies went on to make it big in the Box Office. Films like Deewar and Sholay gave him the appearance of being the angry young man of Bollywood. Besides these films he also did comic roles in films like Amar Akbar Antony, etc. This was the peak of his performance and he regaled in the glory of his fans. But in 1983 while shooting for the film Coolie, Amitabh was seriously injured and was admitted to a hospital in Breach Candy, this was the time his entire fan base reached out with prayers being offered for his recovery.

In no time Amitabh was back on the movie circuit and was shooting films. Seeing his popularity and with friends in high political positions he decided to enter it himself, he contested the elections from his home town in Allahabad for a Congress seat and was elected to the parliament, but unfortunately his entrance was short lived and he opted out with the rise in controversies about the Bofors scandal.

Now out of politics he decided to return to the movie industry again but with time so had the genre of acting moved on. The Big B found it rather difficult to play the roles he was offered as the entire scene of ‘angry young man’ was being carried out by younger actors in a totally new fashion. After a series of hits before he left now almost all of his were flops, movies like Ganga Jamuna Saraswati. Khuda Gawah, Agneepath, Hum and Shahenshah, were major flops and the Big B decided to float his own business venture of film production through Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (ABCL).

However it was not to be and the company soon went into debt of over Rs.90 crores, but luck took a turn for the better and he was chosen to host the show Kaun Banega Corerpati? A remake of the hit US series of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. This helped him make good what he owed and got himself out of debt.

He was later chosen as the star of the millennium by BBC and was given this title over others like Charlie Chaplin and Laurence Olivier. Besides this he was the first Indian actor to be honoured with a wax model in Madam Tussad’s in London.

Now at 60 plus the megastar is still churning out hit after hit and has made a niche for himself in the Indian film industry. In addition to acting he has built his name as a brand which is used to sell just about anything, he also lends his deep voice for narrations and voiceovers in various films and advertisements. He is one of the busiest ageing Bollywood stars in India.