Kiara Advani
Alia Advani (born 31 July 1991), known professionally as Kiara Advani ([kɪˈjaːra əɽˈʋaːɳi]), is an Indian actress who works in Hindi and Telugu language films. After making her acting debut in the comedy film Fugly (2014), she played MS Dhoni's wife in the sports biopic M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016). She gained appreciation for playing a sexually unsatisfied wife in the Netflix anthology film Lust Stories (2018) and played the leading lady in the political thriller Bharat Ane Nenu (2018).
Advani received wider attention for starring in the romantic drama Kabir Singh and the comedy drama Good Newwz, two of the highest-grossing Hindi films of 2019. She won the IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter. She had further commercial success in the 2022 films Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Jugjugg Jeeyo. Her performances as Vikram Batra's girlfriend in the war film Shershaah (2021) and a troubled married woman in the romantic drama Satyaprem Ki Katha (2023) earned her nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.
In addition to acting, she serves as the ambassador of several brands and products. Advani is married to actor Sidharth Malhotra.
Early life
Advani was born 31 July 1991, to Jagdeep Advani, a Sindhi Hindu businessman and Genevieve Jaffrey, a teacher whose father was originally from Lucknow and whose mother was of Scottish, Irish, Portuguese, and Spanish ancestry. Her younger brother, Mishaal, is a musician. She is related to several celebrities through her maternal family. Actors Ashok Kumar and Saeed Jaffrey are her step-great-grandfather and great-uncle, respectively.
Advani was educated at Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai. She then attended Jai Hind College, Mumbai where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mass communications.
Born as Alia Advani,she changed her first name to Kiara prior to the release of her first film, Fugly, in 2014. Her choice of name was inspired by Priyanka Chopra's character Kiara in the film Anjaana Anjaani (2010). She stated that it was Salman Khan's suggestion to change her name, as Alia Bhatt was already an established actress.
Career
Early work (2014–2019)
Two years later, Advani appeared in the sports drama M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), a biopic of cricketer MS Dhoni who served as the former captain of Indian cricket team. She had a supporting role opposite Sushant Singh Rajput (who essayed Dhoni), as the real-life character of his wife, hotel manager Sakshi Rawat. M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story was a major commercial success with global revenues of over ₹216 crore (US$27 million).
Advani then starred in Abbas–Mustan's action thriller Machine (2017). It failed at the box office. She next collaborated with filmmaker Karan Johar, for their first of many films, in the Netflix anthological film Lust Stories (2018), where she starred opposite Vicky Kaushal as his sexually dissatisfied wife. Writing for NDTV, Raja Sen found her to be "positively lovely" in it.
Advani expanded to Telugu cinema in 2018, appearing with Mahesh Babu in the action film Bharat Ane Nenu from Koratala Siva, about a student who unexpectedly becomes the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Janani K of India Today opined that she "shines in her brief role" but added that her character was "more of an eye-candy who doesn't add any purpose to the story". The film grossed ₹225 crore (US$28 million) worldwide, making it one of Telugu cinema's highest grossers. She, however, failed to replicate this success with her second Telugu film, Vinaya Vidheya Rama, co-starring Ram Charan.In a scathing review for The Hindu, Sangeetha Devi Dundoo wrote, "It isn't Kiara Advani's fault that she looks lost in the melee." In the same year, she had a guest appearance in Abhishek Varman's ensemble period film Kalank, produced by Johar.
Rise to prominence (2019–present)
Advani received wider attention later in 2019 for Sandeep Reddy Vanga's romantic drama Kabir Singh, starring Shahid Kapoor. The film had a worldwide gross of over ₹378 crore (US$47 million) becoming her highest-grossing release, but critics panned it due to its depiction of misogyny and toxic masculinity. Rajeev Masand bemoaned that her passive character "offers the actress little to work with". She then starred in the comedy Good Newwz alongside Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh, about two couples tryst with in vitro fertilization. Namrata Joshi opined, "Dosanjh and Advani are all about the amplification of the boisterous, kitschy Punjabi stereotype but they play it with an infectious cheer."Both Kabir Singh and Good Newwz grossed over ₹200 crores each domestically, ranking among the year's highest-grossing films. She won the IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Good Newwz.
Advani at an event for Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 in 2022
In 2020, Advani starred in Johar's production Guilty, a Netflix film about sexual assault. She played Nanki Dutta, a troubled college student. While Ektaa Malik of The Indian Express believed that she had been "reduced to the 'tortured-artistic-creative' types", Rohan Nahaar of Hindustan Times commended her "absolutely electric performance as the unreliable Nanki". Advani was nominated for Best Actress in a Web Original Film at Filmfare OTT Awards.She then played the wife of Akshay Kumar's character in Raghava Lawrence's horror comedy Laxmii, in which Kumar's character gets possessed by a transgender ghost. Laxmii was released digitally on Disney+ Hotstar owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and met with negative reviews. Even so, it attained a strong viewership on the platform. In her final release of 2020, Advani starred in the unremarkable romantic comedy Indoo Ki Jawani (2020).
Advani next featured in the war film Shershaah (2021), based on the life of army officer Vikram Batra (played by Sidharth Malhotra), in which she played Batra's girlfriend. The film released digitally on Amazon Prime Video, on which it became the most-streamed Indian film. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost opined that Advani "sparkles" in her brief role. She received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.
Bhulaiyaa 2. Shalini Langer of The Indian Express wrote that she "has little to do except pop up now and then". The film emerged as one of her most commercially successful, with worldwide earnings of over ₹2.6 billion (US$33 million). Advani starred alongside an ensemble cast in Jugjugg Jeeyo, a comedy-drama about divorce, in which Varun Dhawan and her played an unhappily married couple. Writing for Hindustan Times, Monika Rawal Kukreja commended her "restrained performance" in it. It earned ₹1.35 billion (US$17 million) worldwide. She then starred in the comic thriller Govinda Naam Mera, with Vicky Kaushal and Bhumi Pednekar, which released digitally on Disney+ Hotstar. Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com opined that "Kiara Advani's energy is capable of far more heavy lifting than it gets credit for."
Advani reunited with Kartik Aaryan in Satyaprem Ki Katha (2023), a romantic drama about a troubled marriage. Scroll.in's Nandini Ramnath found her "sensitive, soulful" performance to be "affecting", adding that she "displays further evidence of her growing confidence". It emerged as a modest commercial success. Advani received her second Filmfare nomination for Best Actress.
Advani will next appear in the Telugu film Game Changer directed by S. Shankar, co-starring Ram Charan. She will also join the YRF Spy Universe action sequel War 2.
Personal life
Advani with her husband Sidharth Malhotra at their wedding reception in 2023
Despite persistent rumours of dating actor Sidharth Malhotra since 2020, Advani did not publicly speak about the relationship.On 7 February 2023, they married in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony. Their wedding received widespread media attention, resulting in their wedding pictures being the most-liked Instagram post in India.
Other work and public image
Raghuvendra Singh of Filmfare finds Advani to be "charming, vivacious and always full on energy". Shama Bhagat of The New Indian Express notes, "After almost written off by critics after her debut film, Advani had taken the failure in her stride and is evidently on a success spree with hit after hit." Advani supports a number of social causes. She promoted the "Quaker Feed A Child" initiative of Smile Foundation and also supported The Quint's initiative #SpreadTheLight. During COVID-19 crisis, she donated to the "I Stand With Humanity" campaign, to help daily wage workers of the film and television industry.
Advani is an endorser for several brands and products, including Audi, Galaxy Chocolate, Colgate, and Slice. In 2019, she took part in a campaign as brand ambassador for Giordano handbags. In 2020, she collaborated with Myntra and in 2022, she was signed by the Spanish retailer Mango for an Indian campaign. In 2023, Reliance Retail's beauty brand Tira and Quaker Oats Company signed her as an ambassador.
In March 2023, Advani performed at the opening ceremony of the Women's Premier League alongside Kriti Sanon and AP Dhillon. In October that year, she performed at an event in Doha for the "Entertainer No. 1" tour, alongside Shahid Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Tiger Shroff, Rakul Preet Singh, Jacqueline Fernandez and Ash King.
Advani has featured in The Times of India's listing of the "Most Desirable Woman", ranking sixth in 2019 and fourth in 2020. In 2019 and 2022, Rediff.com placed her at fourth and seventh, respectively, in their listing of the top 10 Popular Stars of Bollywood Cinema. In 2022, GQ India ranked Advani in their "30 Most Influential Young Indians" listings and named her one of the best dressed celebrities in the country. In 2023, Advani became the most searched personality on Google in India.
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