Kalki Koechlin

At 40 years old, Kalki Koechlin has this physical status:

Kalki Koechlin (listen) is a French actor and writer who lives and works in India.

She is the recipient of such awards as a National Film Award, a Filmfare, and two Screen Awards for her unconventional body of work in the Hindi film industry. Koechlin was attracted to theatre from a young age, born in Pondicherry, India, to French parents.

She studied drama at Goldsmiths, University of London, and worked with a local theatre company simultaneously.

Chanda made her debut in the drama Dev.D in 2009 and received a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress after returning to India.

She appeared in two of the highest-grossing films of their respective debut years, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), both of which received her Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Filmfare Awards.

With The Girl in Yellow Boots, a 2011 crime thriller in which she also appeared as the lead actress, Koechlin extended her career into screenwriting. Koechlin's continuing appearances in films such as the supernatural thriller Ek Thi Daayan (2013) and the musical drama Gully Boy (2019) maintained her success, as she continued to receive accolades for her roles in independent films, including the comedy drama Waiting (2015) and the slice of life film Ribbon (2017).

With a Straw (2014), she received more acclaim and a National Film Award for her role as a young woman with cerebral palsy in the coming of age drama Margarita.

Koechlin made the switch to web content in the late 2010s and appeared in a string of excellent web series.

She received acclaim for her role as a lonely socialite in Netflix's Made in Heaven and a self-styled godwoman (both 2019) Koechlin has written, directed, and appeared in numerous stage plays.

She co-wrote the drama Skeleton Woman (2009), which received her The MetroPlus Playwright Award, and made her debut with the tragicomedy Living Room (2015).

Koechlin is also a feminist and campaigns for many causes, ranging from health and education to women's rights and gender equality.

Early life and background

Kalki Koechlin was born in Pondicherry, India, on January 10th, 1984 to French parents Jol Koechlin and Françoise Armandie, who immigrated to India from Angers, France. She is a descendant of Maurice Koechlin, a French structural engineer who was instrumental in the planning and construction of the Eiffel Tower. Koechlin's parents are devotees of Sri Aurobindo, and she spent a significant portion of her childhood in Auroville. The family later settled in Kallatty, a village near Ooty, Tamil Nadu, where Koechlin's father founded a company that made hang-gliders and ultralight aircraft.

In Ooty, where she spoke English, Tamil, and French, Koechlin was brought up in a strict environment. When she was fifteen, her parents divorced; her father went to Bangalore and remarried; and Koechlin continued to live with her mother. She has referred to the period she spent in Kalatty between the ages of 5 and 8 years as her "happiest" in the years before her parents' separation. Koechlin has a half-brother from her mother's first marriage and a half-brother from her father's second marriage.

Koechlin attended Hebron School, a boarding school in Ooty, where she was active in both acting and writing. She has admitted to being shy and quiet as a child. Koechlin aspired to study psychology and become a criminal psychologist. After completing her education at the age of 18, she travelled to London and studied drama and theatre at Goldsmiths, University of London. She spent two years with Theatre of Relativity, writing The Rise of the Wild Hunt and appearing in plays such as David Hare's The Blue Room and Marivaux's The Dispute. On weekends, she served as a waitress.

Koechlin returned to India and lived with her maternal half-brother in Bangalore after completing her studies. Unable to find a job there, she moved to Mumbai, where she worked with theatre designers and with Atul Kumar and Ajay Krishnan, the founders of a Mumbai-based theatre company named "The Company Theatre." They were looking for actors for a theatrical festival named Contacting the World, which would be held in Liverpool.

Personal life

In April 2011, Koechlin married filmmaker Anurag Kashyap at her maternal home in Ooty. When shooting her debut film Dev.D., the two met. Koechlin and Kashyap released a joint statement on November 13th announcing their split. They applied for divorce at a Mumbai family court on May 19, 2015. The couple went through marriage counseling during the time between their divorce and eventual divorce. Koechlin revealed in 2012 that she regretted being so open about her personal life instead of your career." She has rarely spoken out about her personal life after her divorce. She has often been compared romantically to other Bollywood celebrities, but she has consistently denied any such allegations. Dosa, a rescue cat, was adopted by Koechlin.

On September 30, 2019, Koechlin announced that she and her boyfriend, Guy Hershberg, an Israeli singer, had announced their pregnancy. They were born on February 7, 2020, by water birth.

In an interview with Daily News and Analysis, she confessed to being a victim of stereotypes in her teenage years and early film career, where she was portrayed as a 'white girl' in India. "You have days when you haven't slept well," she goes on to say, "You don't look like you're good enough or pretty enough." But ultimately, it's all about attitude. You must have a little abandonment and not be self-conscious. You should avoid staring at yourself in the mirror and just smile a little." She confessed to her degree of confusion regarding her identity as a "white-skinned woman" growing up in Tamil Nadu, and she had to defend her "Indianness" on several occasions. "My skin is white, but my heart is brown," she said in a telephone interview with The Local. She has a French passport and said in an interview that she preferred it over an Indian passport because traveling with the former is quicker.

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Film career

After transferring to Mumbai, Koechlin auditioned for Dev.D (2009), a modern-day adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's 1917 Bengali novel Devdas. In the film, Koechlin plays Leni, a young woman who turns to prostitution after a leaked sex tape scandal. The woman was based on Chandramukhi, a pivotal character in the book, a prostitute who fell in love with the titular protagonist. Kashyap refused Koechlin initially because she was not Indian and did not correspond to his physical appearance of the character. However, he changed his mind and offered her the role after seeing her audition tape. The film received generally favorable feedback and was a box office hit. For her appearance, Koechlin received accolades and a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress, which was described as "imbued [...] with a touching fragility" and "astonishingly [appropriate]." Some people were more taken by her character's richness, but Koechlin's role in the film's first half was dismissive, according to some.

Koechlin appeared in The Film Emotional Atyachar, her first film appearance of 2010. Ranvir Shorey, Mohit Ahlawat, Abhimanyu Singh, Vinay Pathak, and Ravi Kishan appeared in the film for mixed reviews. Critics generally applauded Sophie's performance as a manipulative woman kidnapped by two corrupt cops. Komal Nahta of Koimoi described her results as average, while Daily News and Analysis's Blessy Chettiar said she was underutilized. Koechlin had agreed to appear in I am Afia, one of Onir's four short films, but the film was released with a changed plot for the segment. "As we talked more, both Kalki and myself felt that the story was getting too rushed in the 25-minute limit," The Telegraph Onir said. After the change of plot, Koechlin, who was supposed to play an NGO employee in the film, was eventually replaced by Nandita Das.

Koechlin had four releases in 2011, gaining a lot of attention for her roles in them after a string of failed film roles early on. The first was Bejoy Nambiar's Shaitan, a crime-thriller starring Koechlin, Rajeev Khandelwal, Gulshan Devaya, Shiv Panditt, Neil Bhoopalam, and Kirti Kulhari, and Kirti Kulhari. She played the role of a troubled teen and called it an exhausting journey, saying she felt drained while trying to, "get into the psyche of someone who does a lot of drugs and alcohol," saying she has "loosened her mind a little bit and is very vulnerable." Although film critics referred to her as "nightmarish" and "engaging," Koechlin was lauded for her performance, with Raja Sen calling her "an increasingly striking actress." Following its debut, the film received rave reviews from critics, as well as a Gold Award for Best Actress nomination to Koechlin.

Koechlin appeared in Zoya Akhtar's coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. In a previous interview with NDTV, Akhtar had expressed her interest in Koechlin, after she had seen her in Dev.D and the then-unreleased That Girl in Yellow Boots. Natasha, a South Bombay girl who works as an interior designer, was played by her. Koechlin, who attended diction classes for the role, confessed that she was keen to participate in the film because her participation in Dev.D and Shaitan had led to her being stereotyped in gruesome roles of prostitutes, troubled teenagers, and misfits. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was a blockbuster and the ninth highest-grossing Bollywood film at the time of its release, with worldwide collections of 1.53 billion (US$19 million). Critics applauded Koechlin's performance. Gaurav Malani of The Times of India said she was "excellent," and Raja Sen described her as "strong enough to do multiple roles" in her review for Rediff.com. Koechlin also received her second Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film.

With Anurag Kashyap's 2011 thriller That Girl in Yellow Boots, Koechlin expanded her career into screenwriting. Kashyap asked her to write the script for the film, she said, because he was looking for a woman's perspective on the film. Ruth, a British woman named Ruth, who comes to Mumbai in search of her biological father, was co-starring Naseeruddin Shah. The role was partially based on her own experience as a "white-girl" in India. The film was shot in a short time of thirteen days at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and the 67th Venice International Film Festival, among other places. It was a momentous acclaim, with Koechlin being lauded for her performance. Roger Ebert wrote that Koechlin "creates a memorable woman who is sad and old beyond her years" in a film three-and-a-half castout of four children out of four. Koechlin was described as "unrestrained and uncorrupted" by Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com. Saibal Chatterjee, a NDTV film critic, also applauded the film and described her role as "complete perfection." The Sanjay Leela Bhansali-produced comedy My Friend Pinto was Koechlin's final year of the year. In the film, she played the part of an aspiring dancer.

For Dibakar Banerjee's political thriller Shanghai, Koechlin was cast opposite Emraan Hashmi and Abhay Deol (her third collaboration with Deol). At the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, the film, which was based on Vassilis Vassilikos' 1967 novel Z (made into a movie of the same name), premiered. Koechlin played the role of a political protester, a role she characterized as both fragile and awkward to be criticizing. "Someone who is not an accepted individual [...] an outsider," the woman said. Critics also applauded Shanghai, and the box-office was a sleeper at the box-office grossing over $355 million (US$4.4 million) worldwide. Koechlin received mixed reviews for her role in the film. Russell Edwards praised the "biting edge" she brought to the role, but Aniruddha Guha thinks she is the "weakest link" in the film.

Koechlin's continued work with commercial films has contributed to her success, in different ways, with both of her 2013 films, the supernatural thriller Ek Thi Daayan, and the romantic comedy-drama Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. The former was based on Mobius Trips, a short story written by Mukul Sharma, the father of Konkona Sen Sharma, who also appeared in the film. Lisa Dutt, a Canada-based music teacher who is accused of practising witchcraft, was Koechlin's job. Koechlin learned to play the guitar and lips synced "Yaaram," one of the film's songs. Critical and critical reactions were mixed on the film's opening, and it had a good run at box-office, grossing over $42 million (US$5.0 million). In her review of the film, critic Anupama Chopra said she was "an interesting actress but the film doesn't know what to do with her."

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, which also appeared Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor, and Aditya Roy Kapur, was her second film appearance of 2013. Aditi Mehra, a tomboy, appeared in Aditi Mehra's role. Koechlin, who was caring for her hospitalized mother and filming for the film, called it a "really difficult situation." Despite this, she characterized her time on the film sets as "fun" and started a close relationship with Padukone. The film debuted as one of the top-grossing Bollywood films, grossing $30.3 billion (US$38 million). Koechlin was praised for her appearance and comedic timing, and News18's Rajeev Masand wrote, "Koechlin invests heart and spunkiness to the role." For her role in the film, she received her third Filmfare Best Supporting Actress award.

Later this year, Koechlin and VJ Juhi Pandey appeared in a film titled It's Your Fault. The video mocks the belief that women are to blame for triggering rapes because they are dealing with sexual assaults on women. It was created by All India Bakchod and was posted on their YouTube channel. It's Your Fault, with over 150,000 views in two days. Koechlin's only publication in 2014 was Saif Ali Khan's Happiness, in which she plays a narrator in a satisfaction with Khan's characters. She praised Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani for landing her the role. People noticed her comedic timing in the film, and that was a good thing, according to her. The film, which Koechlin described as "spoof on our film industry and across all the romantic comedies," received mixed feedback and was a box-office disappointment. Despite the film's mixed reception, she earned praise for her work. "Koechlin steals the show with her flawless portrayal of a nagging girlfriend," Saurabh Dwivedi of India Today said, and Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times reported that, although her character in the film was a little forced, she gave a "charming" performance.

With a Straw, a young woman with cerebral palsy who leaves India for New York City study, Koechlin reveals a journey of self-discovery. Malini Chib, Bose's cousin, influenced her character. When Bose first fired for Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, she confronted Koechlin, who, she said, was her "first and only choice" for the role. Bose tried to substitute Koechlin, but she discovered that "something was missing" in each one, and she eventually decided to postpone the shooting for three months to accommodate her. In an interview with the Times of India, Koechlin said that the role was the most demanding of her film career, and she took six months off her filming schedule to prepare for it. Adil Hussain, an actor, underwent a six-week training course. The workshop was designed to make her "body language sound natural," while simultaneously focusing on patients with cerebral palsy's speech patterns. Koechlin spent a long time with Chib, her physiotherapist, and speech therapist. She attended a month-long workshop in Delhi, where she concentrated on the movement of the body parts. Despite the fact that the film explores physical impairment, Koechlin dubbed it "a romcom with some obstacles."

Margarita with a Straw premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, 19th Busan International Film Festival, and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival were all screenings at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, 19th Busan International Film Festival. Positive reviews followed the film, and Koechlin received acclaim for her portrayal of a disabled person. Although Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter made a lengthy note of her "bravura" appearance in both physical and emotional terms, Saibal Chatterjee described her as "[simply] brilliant." Deepanjana Pal of Firstpost attributed her screen appeal to her lack of acting skills, adding, "[Koechlin] has done a good job of miming the physical appearance [...] but what is truly surprising is the lack of artifice in her expressions." In his review for The Commercial Appeal, John Beifuss compared her appearance to Eddie Redmayne's appearance in the biographical drama The Theory of Everything. In a major film studio production, Koechlin received the highest accolade for his performance that earned an Academy Award nomination. Guy Lodge, a Variety critic who was particularly impressed by her range, was echoed in her assessment. At the 63rd National Film Awards, Koechlin received several awards for his film, including Best Actress Award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, the Screen Award for Best Actress, and the Jury Award. In addition, she had received awards for Best Actress at the Seattle International Film Festival and the Asian Film Awards.

In Y-Films' mini web-series Man's World, a satire on gender roles, Koechlin appeared alongside Parineeti Chopra, Richa Chadda, and Bhumi Pednekar. In April 2015, the series was released on YouTube. She starred in Waiting, an independent film about two people who befriend each other in a hospital and also tending to their respective comatose spouses. Tara Deshpande, a young and brash social media savvy, was Koechlin's role. As Menon wanted her to appear more "earthy," she dyed her hair black for the role. In December 2015, the film made its world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) in December 2015 and had its theatrical debut in India on May 27. Critical feedback about the film and her performances have been received. Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com called the film "fully riveting" and then praised the "stunningly unhindered" Koechlin for her "in the most mesmeric way," she wrote. She also praised the actress's "in the most mesmeric style to create a woman we sympathize with and wish for." Kunal Guha, a film critic, believed that the film belonged to Koechlin, who, "impresses" by his ability to wordlessly describe her character's state of mind in every scene.

In 2016, Koechlin appeared in two document films, Freedom Matters, a campaign aimed at raising concerns about human trafficking, and Living Shakespeare, a BBC film in which she drew parallels between Ophelia and Indian women, a programme in which she drew parallels between Ophelia and Indian women. At the 2016 Marrakech International Film Festival, she was invited to be part of the jury presided by Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr. Two of Koechlin's films were shown at the Mumbai Film Festival, including the widely lauded A Death in the Gunj and the panned Mantra. Mimi, a Kolkata-based Anglo-Indian woman who seduces a younger teenage girl, was portrayed in the former. She attended an acting workshop conducted by Atul Mongia's film director, as well as learning an Anglo-Indian accent. She regarded it as unlike anything she'd ever done before, calling it "a very sexual, beautiful person." A Death in the Gunj has been postponed on several occasions due to various reasons. Critics, who were appreciative of Koechlin's results, described her as "ever reliable" and "ideal."

Both Mantra and A Death in the Gunj were released theatrically in the first half of 2017 – in the months of March and June respectively. The delayed road film Jia aur Jia co-starring Richa Chaddha, Koechlin's following launch, focusing on two strangers of the same name who embarked on a road trip together. Howard Rosemeyer's debut film in his debut was released on October 27th. Critics, including Sweta Kaushal of Hindustan Times and Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost, snuffed out Koechlin's contribution for praise, while criticalizing the film. Ribbon, the year's best-selling product, received a receptive response from critics. The film, directed by Rakhee Sandilya, follows a couple's life in Mumbai and the challenges they face with an unplanned pregnancy. According to most, Koechlin portrayed Sahana, a sales executive who faces discrimination at work, and it was widely regarded as the most mature role of her film career by commentators. Chatterjee was particularly taken by her "star turn [in] one of her finest roles on film ever played.

In Siddharth Sinha's short film The Job, Koechlin played a French immigrant. Kushal Shrivastava's production was supposed to be a critique of the corporate sector and employee treatment. Her performance attracted praise from writers for securing the film's appeal to her persuasive appearance. The French government had given Koechlin the Order of Arts and Letters; Alexandre Ziegler, the Ambassador of France to India, presented the award on June 23. In the musical drama Gully Boy, Koechlin appeared alongside Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. The film's success soared as a critical and commercial success, grossing over 2.2 billion (US$31 million) against a production budget of 400 million (US$5.6 million).

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