Jackie Shroff

Jaikishan Kakubhai Shroff (born 1 February 1957), known by his screen name Jackie Shroff, is an Indian actor and former model from Mumbai, Maharashtra; who primarily works in Hindi film industry.

In a career spanning over four decades, he has appeared in over 220 films in 13 languages.

He has received several accolades including four Filmfare Awards.

Shroff was born as Jaikishan Kakubhai Shroff or Saraf on 1 February 1957 in Bombay (present Mumbai), Bombay State, India.

His father, Kakubhai Haribhai Shroff, was a Gujarati, while his mother was a Turkmen who fled from Kazakhstan (then the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic part of the Soviet Union) during a coup according to Shroff.

His maternal grandmother escaped to Ladakh along with her seven daughters when there was a coup in Kazakhstan.

They migrated to Delhi, and finally to Mumbai.

His father came from a Gujarati family of merchants and traders.

However, they lost all of their money in the stock market and his father had to leave home at the age of 17.

His father met his mother when both were teenagers and got married.

Shroff established himself as one of the leading actors of Indian cinema of the 1980s and the 1990s.

After an uncredited small appearance in Swami Dada (1982), Shroff made his lead debut with Subhash Ghai's blockbuster actioner Hero (1983), which made him an overnight star.

Sunil Anand took Shroff to his father, and he (Dev Anand) gave him a minor role as Shakti Kapoor's gang member in Swami Dada (1982).

Initially, Dev Anand selected him as a second lead, but after a week changed his mind and gave that role to Mithun Chakraborty.

Subhash Ghai was hunting a new guy for his upcoming movie, he asked Ashok Khanna about it.

Khanna took Shroff to Ghai, who signed Shroff as lead in Hero (1983), which upon release emerged as a hit.

As a youngster, he modelled in a few advertisements including Savage perfumes.

It was one of his classmates in school who gave Shroff his name "Jackie" and then filmmaker Subhash Ghai stuck to this name when he launched him in the film Hero.

Shroff regularly revisits his childhood home in Teen Batti.

He went onto establish himself with hit films, such as Teri Meherbaniyan (1985), Karma (1986), Kudrat Ka Kanoon, Jawab Hum Denge (both 1987), Ram Lakhan and Parinda (both 1989), winning the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for the lattermost.

His other critical and commercial successes, include Vardi, Tridev (both 1989), Baap Numbri Beta Dus Numbri (1990), Angaar (1992), Khalnayak, Gardish (both 1993), Rangeela (1995), Agni Sakshi (1996), Border (1997) and Bandhan (1998).

In the 2000s, Shroff took on more supporting and negative roles in notable ventures, such as Refugee, Mission Kashmir (both 2000), Devdas (2002), Hulchul (2004), Bhagam Bhag (2006), Apna Sapna Money Money (2006), Raaz: The Mystery Continues (2009), Dhoom 3 (2013), Happy New Year (2014), Housefull 3 (2016), Bharat (2019) and Sooryavanshi (2021).

Jackie Shroff dropped out from junior college after finishing his 11th class.

He was raised in a neighbourhood in "Teen batti" area of Mumbai.

In childhood, he fought many street fights for his friends and often got beat up.

His father Kakubhai was an astrologer.

After 11th grade, he did nothing for two years and roamed here and there, later he tried to get a job in Navy and later in Air India as a Purser but did not succeed.

He then received a diploma about travel and tourism and landed a job in a travel agency, when an accountant from an ad agency asked him to model.

He met the photographer of the agency and began doing modelling and left the travel agency job.

Aasha K Chandra, who was running an acting school, asked Shroff to join her class.

Initially Shroff refused her but after she said that Dev Anand's son Suneil Anand is also attending her class, Shroff enrolled there.

Jackie Shroff dropped out of school after his 11th standard as his family did not have much money.

He tried his hand working as an apprentice chef at Taj Hotels and as a flight attendant at Air India, but he was rejected from both places because of his lack of qualifications.

He then started working as a travel agent in a local company called "Trade Wings" near Jehangir Art Gallery.

An advertising agency accountant spotted him at the bus stand and asked him if he would be interested in modelling.

The next day, Shroff went to the advertising agency (National advertising agency) located in the same building as Davar's college near Flora Fountain for the photo shoot during his lunch time.

This photo shoot for a suit shirt launched Shroff on his modelling path.

Shroff's work in other languages include - Punjabi film Sardar Saab (2017), Konkani film Soul Curry (2017), Tamil films Bigil (2019), Jailer (2023) and Telugu film Saaho (2019).

In addition to his acting career, Shroff is an environmentalist.

He is married to model and producer Ayesha Dutt, with whom he has two children including actor Tiger Shroff.