Kaif's career started with a bang after she won a beauty contest in Hawaii at the age of fourteen. After that, she began her professional modeling career in London at Freelance Agencies. During her tenure at London Fashion Week, Kaif attracted the attention of filmmaker Kaizad Gustad.
Gustad selected her for the Bollywood movie Boom. The cast members of the movie included Amitabh Bachan, Gulshan Grover, Jackie Shroff, Madhu Sapre and Padma Lakshmi. It was during the shooting of the movie that Kaif started receiving other offers and she finally decided to stay in India. Her next project was a ramp walk for Rohit Bal at the India Fashion Week. She also appeared in the first Kingfisher Calendar.
Although Boom was an utter box office failure and was overwhelmingly panned by critics, it turned Katrina into a household name. Katrina was soon endorsing different brands on Indian Tv channels, including Coca-cola, LG, Fevicol, and Samsung.
Her next movie after Boom was a Telugu romantic movie, Malliswari, in 2004, along with actor Venkatesh. This movie was directed by K. Vijaya Bhaskar and produced by D. Suresh Babu. In this movie, Kaif played the role of princess. Kaif netted 7.5 million rupees for the movie.
Next year, she made an appearance in the Indian political crime thriller movie Sarkar. Directed by Ram Gopal Varma, the film stars Amitabh Bachan and Abhishek Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Supriya Pathak, and Tanisha Mukherjee. Sarkar was both a commercial and critical success, although Kaif, a newcomer in the industry, was largely overlooked by the critics. But nonetheless, this was Kaif's first successful Bollywood movie.
After that, she appeared in the David Dhawan comedy Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya as a Sonia. The movie featured Salman Khan, with whom she was to have a bittersweet relationship for years to come before finally parting ways, in the lead role. Its star cast included Susmita Sen and Salman Khan's younger brother Sohail Khan.
Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya is about the life of a doctor who is caught between two women. Its story is similar to the 1969 movie Cactus Flower. The movie was made with the total budget of Rs15 billion and collected Rs26 billion in Indian and Rs48 billion worldwide.
Later, in 2007, she appeared as a co-star in the romantic comedy movie Namaste London. Directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, it had Akshay Kumar in the lead role followed by Rishi Kapoor, Javed Sheikh, Upen Patel and Clive Standen. It was based on the real story of one of Akshay Kumar's friends.
The movie became a critical and commercial success, with Akshay winning a Filmfare Award in the best actor category for his performance.The total budget of this movie was Rs310 million and made a total collection of Rs710 million.
After the success of this movie, she featured in Partner, yet another David Dhawan movie, alongside Salman Khan, Govinda and Lara Dutta. The movie, too, was a blockbuster.
Kaif's success streak was to remain unbroken for quite a while after Partner. A year down the line, she had appeared in three movies, Race, Singh is Kinng, and Yuvvraaj, which became the movie of the year. Produced and directed by Subhash Ghai, the other cast members of the movie were Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan and Zayed Khan. Made with the budget of Rs 480 million, the movie's collection was just shy of 170 million rupees, in spite of the critical acclaim it received.
However, Katrina was not someone to be affected by a box office loss. Perched on the quivering height of the Indian movie industry with few other competitors around, she went on a scoring spree. Kaif appeared in Kabir Khan’s movie 2009 hit New York along with Johan Abraham and Neil Nitin Mukesh.
Based on the story three Indian-origin friends living in the US city, it deals with the discrimination faced by the Muslims in the US, especially in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack. The movie sees Kaif in the role of Maya, a terrorist's wife. She was nominated in the Best Female Actress category at the Filmfare Awards for her role in the movie.
In the same year, she appeared in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, a rom-com directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and produced by Ramesh S Taurani. Separated from Salman and enjoying her singlehood, the movie, despite the lackluster performance of both the co-stars, became a pivotal moment for Kaif's life, as it was during its shooting that she allegedly fell in love with her co-star Ranbir Kapoor.
Both Ranbir and Kaif soon became the 'it' couple of Bollywood and went on to work in a number of movies together, the most memorable being Prakash Jha's 2010 political thriller Raajneeti, which also saw Ajay Devgan, Nana Patekar, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpayee, and Naseeruddin Shah.
Directed, produced, and co-written by Jha, the movie was inspired by The Mahabharata and Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather. It also took cues from Priyanka Gandhi's election campaign. The movie became a high grosser, collecting Rs1.4 billion. Following this, she again collaborated with Akshay Kumar in the comedy movie Tees Maar Khan, which also features one of Katrina's most famous item numbers, Sheila Ki Jawani. This song was choreographed by Farah Khan, who also directed the movie.
The following year, Kaif starred with Hrithik Roshan in the coming-of-age comedy Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.This movie was directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Farhan Akhtar. It follows the story of three close friends, Arjun, Kabir, and Imraan, and remained No.2 in the box office for four weeks, grossing Rs153 crore.
In 2012, while still in a relationship with Ranvir, Kaif featured in the Yash Raj Production's Indian spy thriller movie Ek Tha Tiger as a Pakistani ISI agent who falls in love with an Indian Raw agent, played by none other than Salman. Directed by Kabir Khan, the movie collected Rs 310 crore worldwide and became the highest grossing movie of the year.
Following its success, she appeared in yet another Yash Raj project, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, along with Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma. This movie made more than Rs 211 crore worldwide.
Katrina's association with Yash Raj continued in 2013 as well, when she appeared in Vijay Krishan Acharya-directed Dhoom 3 along with Amir Khan, Abhisekh Bachchan, and Uday Chopra. It was the most expensive Indian film until then. The total budget of this movie was Rs175 crore, and it went on to earn an eye-watering 509 crore rupees.
Katrina's upcoming project is Tiger Zinda Hai, a sequel to the 2012 hit Ek Tha Tiger, opposite Salman Khan. Based on the abduction of Indian nurses by ISIL, the movie also sees Sajjad Delfrooz, Angad Bedi, Kumud Mishra and Nawab Shah. It is scheduled for a December 22, 2017, release.
Kaif holds British nationality and belongs to mixed ethnicity. Given the stardom she has attained in Bollywood, she has been a constant favorite of the Indian media. Her relationship with Salman, which reportedly started in 2003, remained a Page 3 staple for a long time. So did her relationship with Ranbir.
Apparently, Ranbir Kapoor was responsible for Katrina's breakup with Salman. They started dating in 2012 and were even spotted together Ibiza in August 2013. However, their affair didn’t last a long time and they broke up in February 2016 without citing the reason. Katrina is rumored to be currently single.
In spite of being an extremely private person, Kaif is active when it comes to promoting her projects on social media, including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube. She has more than 6.2 million followers on Instagram and 1.27 million followers on her Twitter account.
With a stellar career record and numerous hits in her kitty, Katrina Kaif is one of the richest actresses in the Bollywood film industry. She charges between 25 to 30 million rupees per movie. Her net worth is estimated at around $10 million.
Besides her acting career, she is also a top-rated model and brand ambassador, who has appeared in numerous advertisements. Katrina has endorsed brands like L’Oreal, Slice, Lux, Etihad Airways, Pantene, Olay, Nakshatra, Veet, Coca-Cola, LG, Samsung and Fevicol, among others. Kaif reportedly charges more than 15 million rupees per endorsement.
With such a bank balance and market capital, there is no doubt that Katrina's lifestyle reflects her earnings. Apart from owning a 3 BHK flat in Guldev Sagar on Waterfield Road, Bandra, Katrina also has several properties in London. She also owns Audi Q3 and Audi Q7 cars. Her favorite brands include Armani, Prada, Rina Dhaka, and Rocky S.
A British citizen, she holds an Indian business visa of India works on a visa basis in India.
Along with her acting career, Kaif is also actively involved in philanthropy. She has worked for various relief projects in India and is also closely involved with her mother, Suzanne, who runs a charitable trust that helps abandoned baby girls and works to prevent female infanticide. Kaif donated the winning amount from her appearances in 10 Ka Dum (in 2009 and 2010) and Kaun Banega Crorepati (2012) to her mother's trust. She has also recorded Rhyme Skool, an album of nursery rhymes composed by A. R. Rahman, to raise funds for a new school in Madurai.