How Kiara Advani went from being the girl-next-door to the super star that she is today

There is Alia Advani, the south Mumbai girl who went to the swish The Cathedral and John Connon School where everyone spoke broken Hindi and looked down their noses at Bollywood films. And there is Kiara, the name she gave herself when she entered Bollywood, a place she always wanted to be. It’s here where she gets to play the girl-next-door who goes into life at full tilt, whether it is falling in love with a most unsuitable boy in Kabir Singh (2019), wanting a baby in Good Newwz (2019), or pining for a distant boyfriend in Shershaah (2021). Kiara Advani is happy to inhabit both aspects of her being and, it seems, so does India, which has taken her version of Dimple Cheema in last year’s Shershaah to heart, just as it did her Preeti in Kabir Singh. And to think that audiences didn’t notice her for the longest time after she made her debut in 2014 in Fugly, an ensemble film meant to launch Sonam Kapoor Ahuja’s cousin, Mohit Marwah. Playing Sakshi Dhoni in the biopic M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016) got her good reviews, but it was Lust Stories (2018)—a Netflix anthology in which she was directed by Karan Johar, where she faked an orgasm on-screen to the chorus music from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), that put her firmly on the map of Bollywood.

Filmmakers praised her mix of vulnerability and innocence, and before she knew it she was cast in the Hindi version of Arjun Reddy (2017) by director Sandeep Reddy Vanga, who saw her in the Telugu film Bharat Ane Nenu (2018) and Lust Stories. “He wanted a very earnest, raw, and pure emotion in me,” Kiara tells Bazaar India. He got it, in spades. As Preeti, the long-suffering bandi of senior doctor Kabir Singh, played with fire by Shahid Kapoor, she suddenly became most-wanted. In a sea of young women wanting to play cool girls, Kiara was a down-to-earth woman whom boys wanted to protect and girls wanted to be. As Dimple, the girl who never forgot her first and only love, Captain Vikram Batra, she symbolised undying love, one that transcends time and space. “Most people get this kind of unanimous love only once in their lifetime and I’ve already had it twice, so I feel truly blessed,’’ says Kiara, 29. “Kabir Singh was my first taste of what one calls stardom, but with Shershaah there was a sense of expectation and curiosity about my role in what was essentially a war film. But I knew Dimple’s story and how heart-wrenching it was,” she says with quiet confidence.

Ruchi Narain, her director in Guilty, a 2018 Netflix film where Kiara played a young woman whose boyfriend is accused of rape, says the actress is a “well brought-up, grounded, nice girl," so she can understand and empathise easily with human emotions. Her intelligence, talent and ambition lead her to portray characters different from herself. “In Guilty, she threw herself into the challenge of playing a rebellious, wounded girl with a chip on her shoulder while she was also in the midst of shooting for Dimple in Shershaah. That is her commitment to acting,” Ruchi adds. Atul Mongia who coached Kiara for the part of Nanki in Guilty calls her sincere and receptive to change. “She explored a different side in herself to bring out the core of the character. She has loads of untapped potential and I feel she’ll only get better with age,” he says. It comes from a hunger to do more, to do better, to be better. The pandemic taught Kiara to introspect and evolve emotionally as she continues her search for good work. “I like that I live on the other side of the town. When I cross the Sea Link (that connects south Mumbai to Film City), I leave the Bollywood bubble behind,” Kiara says.

Kiara is a believer in love and forgiveness and if a person cleans up their act, they should get a second chance. It is her on-screen transparency that has attracted most filmmakers to her, but how does she nurture it in a world intent on coarsening and hardening one’s sensibility? She says she doesn’t take herself too seriously. “I’m not too self-aware and there are a lot of people around me who keep me grounded. The celebritydom is a perk of my work but it’s not my driving force,” she says. Kiara is referring to her parents, Jagdeep, a businessman, and Genevieve, a teacher; friends from school she can call at 4 am; as well as her team, her manager, publicist, hairstylist, and make-up artist. “If you’re surrounded by the right people and not by yes-people who’re inflating delusions, you’ll be alright. After all, to relate to people you need to be one of them,” she says.

Kiara has always been on the periphery of the film industry, with the late Saeed Jaffrey being her grand uncle; an aunt who was once Salman Khan’s girlfriend; and Juhi Chawla, a family friend. But Kiara has had her share of rejections, whether it was at the audition of Student of The Year (2012) or parts put out by Yash Raj Films. And since she is social media savvy, Kiara sometimes reads what is written about her. “It’s in your face, it is something that has become part of the job. But the comments below the pictures are more entertaining. They make me laugh,” she smiles. Networking, however, is not for her. “I’m terrible at self-promotion. It is not in my personality. I feel good work speaks for itself and good work brings more work.” As for rumours about dating fellow actor Sidharth Malhotra, Kiara states that she has an honest and open relationship with her parents, whom she still lives with. “They know the truth and that’s what matters.”

Next up—Govinda Naam Mera, a film with Vicky Kaushal and Bhumi Pednekar directed by Shashank Khaitan and her first pan-India film with Shankar co-starring Ram Charan.

“There’s a lot more as an actor that people expect from me, and what my audience wants is also similar to what I want for myself,” she says “I want to grow as a person and as an actor,’’ she continues. “I’ve always been spiritual and I’m interested in going deeper. It grounds me, keeps me connected with myself, and that will translate into my work I believe,” she says.

What could be better for the characters she plays on-screen? 

 

Photographs: Prasad Naik

Styling: Edward Lalrempuia

Hair: Amit Thakur 

Make-up: Lekha Gupta

Fashion Assistant: Zeel Gemavat 

Videographer: Ratnakar Davis 

Production: P Production