Happy birthday Kiara Advani: Did you know she’s related to veteran actors Ashok Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey?

Come August 12, actor Kiara Advani will see her film Shershaah release on Amazon Prime Video. She will be seen as Dimple Cheema, the girlfriend of the late Captain Vikram Batra, the Kargil war hero who was martyred on the battlefield. While much of the film’s focus is likely to stay with Sidharth Malhotra, who will be seen in the titular role, Kiara will be seen in an emotionally charged role as Dimple, who never married after Vikram’s death.

In a short of time, Kiara Advani has proven to be quite a performer, changing gears from emotionally draining roles like Preeti in Kabir Singh to the sprightly Monika Batra in Good Newwz.

While there has been a fair amount of talk about her successes, beginning with films like Lust Stories and Guilty to Kabir Singh, few would know that her personal life is equally interesting. Not many would know that the actor comes with strong connections in Bollywood. On her birthday on Saturday, here’s a look at her family.

Kiara was born on July 31, 1992 to Jagdish Advani, a Mumbai-based Sindhi businessman and Genevieve Jaffrey, a teacher.

Connections with Ashok Kumar and Saeed Jaffrey

For the unversed, Kiara is the step-great-granddaughter of Bollywood legend Ashok Kumar and the grand niece of Saeed Jaffrey. Her mother Genevieve is the daughter of Saeed’s brother Hamid and his first wife, a British woman. In course of time, Hamid divorced his British wife and married Bharti Ganguly, who is one of the daughters of Ashok Kumar.

Speaking about this to a leading daily, Kiara had explained: “My nana, who is Saeed Jaffrey’s brother, married twice. My first nani (my mom’s mom) was a Britisher. Even though he was a Muslim, he divorced her to marry my second nani (Bharti Ganguly), who is Ashok Kumar’s daughter. While my first nani went travelling around the world, it was my second nani who raised my mom from when she was 13. While my nana died a few years back, my first nani is back in India and we are all one big, happy family.”

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Connection with Salman Khan

While neither of her parents are not involved in the film industry, Genevieve and Salman grew up together and are reportedly good friends. Her aunt Shaheen also dated Salman briefly. Speaking about them to the same daily, Kiara had said: “My mom knew Salman sir as they grew up together in Bandra. He would often tell my mother Genieveve Advani how one day he would be a star. They have been friends for the longest time and would go cycling together. She introduced my mausie Shaheen to him and Salman sir and Shaheen mausie dated each other long back. It may have possibly been their first relationship.”

Incidentally, Kiara’s family is known to Juhi Chawla too, from before she was born. And while they are very close, Kiara is not related to Juhi.