Following a brief career in teaching, Advani made her acting debut with the unremarkable comedy filmFugly (2014). Two years later she starred asMS Dhoni's wife in the commercially successful sports biopicM.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016). She gained critical appreciation for playing a sexually unsatisfied wife in theNetflix anthology filmLust Stories (2018) and played the leading lady in the political thrillerBharat Ane Nenu (2018), which was followed by a brief setback.
The romantic dramaKabir Singh (2019) marked a turning point in her career, and she gained further success with the comedy dramaGood Newwz, two of the highest-grossing Hindi films of 2019. She won theIIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter. She rose to prominence with commercially successful 2022 films—the horror comedyBhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and the family dramaJugjugg Jeeyo. Advani received critical praise for playingVikram Batra's girlfriend in the war filmShershaah (2021) and a troubled married woman in the romantic dramaSatyaprem Ki Katha (2023), receiving nominations forFilmfare Award for Best Actress for both these films. This success was followed by two poorly-received films.
In addition to her acting career, she is the celebrity endorser for several brands and products. Advani is married to actorSidharth Malhotra, with whom she has a daughter.
Early life and background
Advani was born 31 July 1991,[3][4] to Jagdeep Advani, aSindhi Hindu businessman and Genevieve Jaffrey, a teacher whose father was originally fromLucknow and whose mother was ofScottish,Irish,Portuguese, andSpanish ancestry.[5][6][7] She has a younger brother, Mishaal, who is a musician.[8] She is related to several celebrities through her maternal family. ActorsAshok Kumar andSaeed Jaffrey are her step-great-grandfather and great-uncle, respectively.[9]
Born as Alia Advani,[12] she changed her first name to Kiara prior to the release of her first film,Fugly, in 2014.[a] Her choice of name was inspired byPriyanka Chopra's character Kiara in the filmAnjaana Anjaani (2010). She stated that it wasSalman Khan's suggestion to change her name, asAlia Bhatt was already an established actress.[13][14]
Career
Early work and struggle (2014–2019)
Advani began her acting career with the ensemble comedy filmFugly (2014) alongside newcomer Mohit Marwah.[15] Mehul S Thakkar ofDeccan Chronicle found her "very striking" and said that she "shows a lot of promise".[16]Fugly underperformed at the box office[17] but she received a nomination at theScreen Awards forBest Female Debut.[18] Advani admitted to feeling demotivated after the film's failure as film offers became scarce.[19]
Two years later, Advani appeared in the sports dramaM.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), a biopic of cricketerMS Dhoni who served as the former captain ofIndian cricket team.[20] She had a supporting role oppositeSushant Singh Rajput (who essayed Dhoni), as the real-life character of his wife, hotel manager Sakshi Rawat.[21]M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story was a major commercial success with global revenues of over₹216 crore (US$26 million).[22] She next appeared inAbbas–Mustan's action thrillerMachine (2017).[23] CriticTaran Adarsh felt that Advani had shown potential in a mediocre film.[24] It failed at the box office.[25] She next collaborated with filmmakerKaran Johar, for their first of many films, in theNetflix anthological filmLust Stories (2018), where she starred oppositeVicky Kaushal as his sexually dissatisfied wife.[26][27] Writing forNDTV, Raja Sen found her to be "positively lovely" in it.[28]
Advani expanded toTelugu cinema in 2018, appearing withMahesh Babu in the action filmBharat Ane Nenu fromKoratala Siva, about a student who unexpectedly becomes the chief minister ofAndhra Pradesh.[29][30] Janani K ofIndia 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".[31] The film grossed₹225 crore (US$27 million) worldwide, making it one ofTelugu cinema's highest grossers.[32][33] She, however, failed to replicate this success with her second Telugu film,Vinaya Vidheya Rama, co-starringRam Charan.[34][35] In a scathing review forThe Hindu, Sangeetha Devi Dundoo wrote, "It isn't Kiara Advani's fault that she looks lost in the melee."[36] In the same year, she had a guest appearance inAbhishek Varman's ensemble period filmKalank, produced by Johar.[37]
In 2020, Advani starred in Johar's productionGuilty, aNetflix film about sexual assault.[46] She played Nanki Dutta, a troubled college student. While Ektaa Malik ofThe Indian Express believed that she had been "reduced to the 'tortured-artistic-creative' types",[47] Rohan Nahaar ofHindustan Times commended her "absolutely electric performance as the unreliable Nanki".[48] Advani was nominated for Best Actress in a Web Original Film atFilmfare OTT Awards.[49] She then played the wife ofAkshay Kumar's character inRaghava Lawrence's horror comedyLaxmii, in which Kumar's character gets possessed by a transgender ghost.[50]Laxmii was released digitally onDisney+ Hotstar owing to theCOVID-19 pandemic, and met with negative reviews.[51][52] Even so, it attained a strong viewership on the platform.[53][54] In her final release of 2020, Advani starred in the unremarkable romantic comedyIndoo Ki Jawani (2020).[55] While praising her look and styling in the film,The Times of India's Ronak Kotecha was unimpressed with Advani's comic timing.[56][57] It failed commercially.[58]
The following year, she appeared withTabu andKartik Aaryan in the comedy horror filmBhool Bhulaiyaa 2. Shalini Langer ofThe Indian Express wrote that she "has little to do except pop up now and then".[63] The film emerged as one of her most commercially successful, with worldwide earnings of over₹2.6 billion (US$31 million).[64][65] Advani starred alongside an ensemble cast inJugjugg Jeeyo, a comedy-drama about divorce, in whichVarun Dhawan and her played an unhappily married couple. Writing forHindustan Times, Monika Rawal Kukreja commended her "restrained performance" in it.[66] It earned₹1.35 billion (US$16 million) worldwide.[67] She then starred in the comic thrillerGovinda Naam Mera, withVicky Kaushal andBhumi Pednekar, which released digitally onDisney+ Hotstar.[68]Sukanya Verma ofRediff.com opined that "Kiara Advani's energy is capable of far more heavy lifting than it gets credit for."[69]
Advani reunited withKartik Aaryan inSatyaprem 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".[70] It emerged as a modest commercial success.[71] Advani received her second Filmfare nomination for Best Actress.[72]
In 2025, Kiara Advani starred in two action films,Game Changer andWar 2, each made on a₹4 billion (US$47 million) budget, making them among themost expensive Indian films ever made.[73] InGame Changer, a Telugu action film directed byS. Shankar, Advani starred oppositeRam Charan.[74]Firstpost's Vinamra Mathur bemoaned that she had been wasted in an "inconsequential romantic track".[75] Advani starred as a wing commander oppositeHrithik Roshan inAyan Mukerji'sWar 2, set in theYRF Spy Universe.[76] In a negative review forThe Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta lamented the absence of "an actual fleshed-out role" for Advani in what she described as a "boys-and-their-toys flick".[77] Similarly,News18’s Titas Chowdhury noted that the actress had been "relegated to the periphery," though she praised her skill in the action sequences.[78]War 2 had the highest opening weekend of Advani's career, yet both it andGame Changer emerged as box-office bombs.[79][80] She will next feature oppositeYash in the action filmToxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups.[81]
Personal life
Advani with her husbandSidharth Malhotra at their wedding reception in 2023
Despite persistent rumours of a relationship with actorSidharth Malhotra since 2020, Advani did not publicly comment on it.[82] They were married on 7 February 2023 in a traditionalHindu ceremony inJaisalmer,Rajasthan.[83][84] The wedding attracted significant media coverage, with their photos becoming the most-likedInstagram post in India.[85] Advani gave birth to their daughter on 15 July 2025.[86][87]
Off-screen work
Advani supports a number of social causes. She promoted the "Quaker Feed A Child" initiative of Smile Foundation and also supportedThe Quint's initiative #SpreadTheLight.[88][89] DuringCOVID-19 crisis, she donated to the "I Stand With Humanity" campaign, to help daily wage workers of the film and television industry.[90][91]
Raghuvendra Singh ofFilmfare finds Advani to be "charming, vivacious and always full on energy".[97] Shama Bhagat ofThe 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."[98][99]Anna M.M. Vetticad ofFirstpost has often mixed to critical on advani, noting her "sparkling" presence but also describing her roles limited by the problematic nature of the films narratives and scripts. Sukanya Verma ofRediff generally praised her, noting her ability to convey emotions effectively, she has pointed out her strength in conveying pain and emotion through her acting even when a role has limited scope.[100]
Advani is an endorser for several brands and products, includingAudi,Galaxy Chocolate,Colgate, andSlice.[101][102][103] In 2019, she took part in a campaign as brand ambassador forGiordano handbags.[104] In 2020, she collaborated withMyntra and in 2022, she was signed by the Spanish retailerMango for an Indian campaign.[105][106] In 2023,Reliance Retail's beauty brand Tira andQuaker Oats Company signed her as an ambassador.[107][108] Advani's brand value was estimated byKroll Inc. (formerly Duff & Phelps) to be US$60 million in 2023, the twelfth-highest among Indian celebrities and third-highest among actresses.[109][110]
Advani has featured inThe Times of India's listing of the "Most Desirable Woman", ranking sixth in 2019[111] and fourth in 2020.[112] 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.[113][114] In 2021, Advani was listed in the Most-in demand actors across the globe, Notably, she were the only female actress making her way to the list only behindPriyanka Chopra Jonas.[115][116] 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.[117][118] In 2023, Advani became the most searched personality onGoogle in India.[119] In 2024, she was placed 33rd onIMDb's List of 100 Most Viewed Indian Stars.[120] As of 2024, she is among India's highest tax-paying celebrities.[121] In 2025, Advani made her debut at theMet carpet with herbaby bump in aGaurav Gupta custom. She emerged as the Top Key Voices with an earned media value (EMV) of $15.3 million, the highest of this year’s gala.[122][123]
Filmography
Key
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