Nargis Fakhri

Claim Page

Nargis Fakhri was born in Queens, New York to a Pakistani Father and Czech mother, but her parents parted ways when she was six years old and she spent her childhood and teens in the US as a “Global Citizen” due to her parent’s mixed citizenships as she herself recalls. She was into modelling from an early stage and took up modelling at the age of twenty seven, when she participated in the well-known reality series “America’s Next Model” in the year 2004, after losing out the first place in the same, she went on to take modelling as a career going on to freelance for many reputed agencies and also becoming a star face in major fashion shows in that period. Nargis Fakhri had a huge turnaround in her life in the year 2009 when she appeared for a Indian Print Campaign for Kingfisher Calendar, which led to filmmaker Imtiaz Ali spotting her and deciding to cast her in Rockstar in the year 2011.

Nargis Fakhri in the past was reported to be in a relationship with producer and actor Uday Chopra, son of Yash Chopra but the rumours seemed to have died out after a while in the industry.

Nargis Fakhri had a dreamlike debut in Bollywood when she was cast as the female lead opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Imtiaz Ali’s musical romantic movie Rockstar where she was seen as the romantic interest of JJ (Ranbir) in the movie, who leads him to his career heights but eventually the pain of unrequited love leads to his downfall. The movie had tremendous reviews for Imtiaz Ali’s skilful making, the Sufi soul of the proceedings, detailed screenplay and the nuanced performances of the lead cast. Although there were highly polarizing reviews for Fakhri’s interpretation of the character with some critics calling it “Blank at times” with some other showering her with accolades for delivering a highly emotional performances coup led with her good looks but was generally over shadowed by Ranbir Kapoor’s stellar depiction of the “rock star”; which incidentally was one of the highest grossers of the year 2011. Other Bollywood outings ( 2013 – 2014) Nargis Fakhri next appeared in Shoojit Sircar’s political thriller Madras Café, where she appeared opposite John Abraham, set in the 80’s and 90’s period in R Sri Lankan Civil War and subsequent Indian Intervention, wherein, John Abraham was seen playing a Indian Army Special Officer and Nargis played a British War Correspondent posted in Sri Lanka in the time; a character which was inspired from many famous real life journalists like Anita Pratap. Her bold and complex character was a welcome change for her after Rockstar which was of a totally different mould as she was seen as a journalist caught between the emotional trauma of a war correspondent who goes who has to investigate the issue keeping in par with her professional ethics, and her portrayal finally got unanimous words of praises from the critics. The movie garnered extremely positive reviews and was a moderate hit at the box office. She next appeared in the famous item song “Dhating Naach” along with Shahid Kapoor. The year 2014 saw her uniting with David Dhawan for his comic entertainer Main Tera Hero, along with Varun Dhawan and Illeana D’cruz and the movie also saw her successful transformation to the “usual masala entertainers” of Hindi cinema. She was finally seen appearing in a chartbuster item number “Yaar Na Miley” for the blockbuster superhero movie Kick, starring Salman Khan in the lead. Debut in Hollywood ( 2015) After a successful stint in Bollywood Nargis Fakhri was approached by Hollywood filmmaker Paul Feig for his action comedy movie Spy, where she was cast among stalwarts like Melissa Mccarthy and Jason Statham, where she played a flamboyant secret agent antagonist “Lia” who comes in an important plot point in the comedy of errors movie, that too only appearing in a handful of scenes which fetched her amazing reviews. The movie fared well among the critics and was a hit with an MTV Award nomination for her in the Best Fight Category along with Melissa Mccarthy in 2015. Recent works ( 2016) Nargis Fakhri yet again appeared in an item song, this time around for the very first time in the Tamil movie Saagasam starring Prasanth. She broke away from the shackles of her limited casting as of then, to play the second wife of Cricketing legend Mohammad Azharuddin in his partial bio pic “Azhar” which had Emraan Hashmi reprising the lead role. Her performance in the movie was an untested territory for Fakhri as she was seen emoting the subtle emotions of the character with utmost conviction, especially a role which had many bold moments which got her mixed reviews from some critics though. The movie only had a mediocre box office run but was a critical hit. Fakhri played an important role in the third instalment of the blockbuster Housefull series in Housefull 3 along with an ensemble cast which boast of stars like Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Abhishek Bachchan and Jacqueline Fernandez and more. The movie demanded nothing from her in the acting department that just flaunting her good looks and playing second fiddle to the hero’s along with the other female leads and her was seen in a cameo in Dishoom. Fakshri was last seen in September 2016 in the musical romantic movie Banjo, opposite Riteish Deshmukh which was a total washout. Nargis Fakhri is all set for her upcoming release, the slice of life drama Five Weddings, where she co- stars with Rajkumar Rao, Bo Derek and Candy Clerk. The Indo-American joint production will deal with themes of love. Death, acceptance and weddings in the backdrop of a Bollywood wedding witnesses by an American Journalist who travels to India.