93 Facts About Kalki Koechlin

Kalki Koechlin is a French actress and writer who works in films and stage.

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

Kalki Koechlin subsequently starred in two of the highest-grossing Hindi films of their respective years, the comedy-dramas Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, both of which garnered her nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Kalki Koechlin starred in and co-wrote the crime thriller That Girl in Yellow Boots.

Kalki Koechlin has since played supporting roles in streaming projects, including Amazon Prime Video's romantic drama Made in Heaven and Netflix's crime thriller Sacred Games and drama film Kho Gaye Hum Kahan.

Kalki Koechlin has written, produced, and acted in several stage productions.

Kalki Koechlin co-wrote the drama Skeleton Woman, which won her the MetroPlus Playwright Award, and made her directorial debut on stage with the tragicomedy Living Room.

Kalki Koechlin is an activist and promotes various causes ranging from health and education to women's empowerment and gender equality.

Kalki Koechlin was born in Pondicherry, India, on 10 January 1984 to French parents, Joel Koechlin and Francoise Armandie, who came to India from Angers, France, after adopting Hinduism.

Kalki Koechlin is a descendant of Maurice Koechlin, a French structural engineer who played an important role in the design and construction of the Eiffel Tower.

Kalki Koechlin's parents are devotees of Sri Aurobindo, and she spent a significant amount of her early childhood in Auroville.

The family later settled in Kallatty, a village near Ooty, Tamil Nadu, where Kalki Koechlin's father established a business designing hang-gliders and ultralight aircraft.

Kalki Koechlin was brought up in a strict environment in Ooty where she spoke English, Tamil, and French.

Kalki Koechlin's parents divorced when she was fifteen; her father moved to Bangalore and remarried, while Koechlin continued living with her mother.

Kalki Koechlin has described the time that she spent at Kallatty between the ages of 5 and 8, before her parents' divorce, as her "happiest".

Kalki Koechlin has a half-brother from her mother's previous marriage, and a half-brother from her father's subsequent marriage.

Kalki Koechlin studied at Hebron School, a boarding school in Ooty, where she was involved in acting and writing.

Kalki Koechlin has admitted to being shy and quiet as a child.

Kalki Koechlin aspired to study psychiatry and become a criminal psychologist.

Kalki Koechlin was next committed to star in I am Afia, one of the four segments of Onir's anthology film I Am, but it went into production with a modified plot for the segment.

Kalki Koechlin, who was to play the role of an NGO worker in the film was ultimately replaced by Nandita Das, after the change of plot.

Kalki Koechlin played the role of a disturbed teenager and called it an "exhausting experience", saying that she felt drained while trying to, "get into a psyche of someone who does a lot of drugs and booze, has lost her mind a little bit and is very vulnerable".

Kalki Koechlin next starred in Zoya Akhtar's ensemble coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara alongside an ensemble cast of Hrithik Roshan, Deol, Farhan Akhtar and Katrina Kaif.

Kalki Koechlin, who took diction classes for the role which required her to speak accented Hindi, revealed that she was keen to do the film because her work in such projects as Dev.

Kalki Koechlin expanded her career into screenwriting with Kashyap's crime thriller That Girl in Yellow Boots.

Kalki Koechlin said that Kashyap asked her to write the script for the film as he was looking for a woman's perspective for the story.

Kalki Koechlin portrayed the role of a political activist, which she found challenging.

Kalki Koechlin played the role of a Canada-based music teacher who is suspected of practising witchcraft.

The film received positive reviews from critics upon release, with Kalki Koechlin's performance receiving mixed reviews, with critic Anupama Chopra remarking that she was "an interesting actor but the film doesn't know what to do with her".

Kalki Koechlin portrayed the role of a tomboy, who unrequitedly falls for her best friend, but later moves on and marries someone else.

Kalki Koechlin, who was nursing her hospitalised mother and simultaneously filming for the project called it a "really tough time".

Later in 2013, Kalki Koechlin appeared in a video entitled It's Your Fault, along with VJ Juhi Pandey.

Kalki Koechlin credited her performance in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani for landing her the role, and stated that people noticed her comic timing in the film, which worked in her favour.

In 2015, Kalki Koechlin starred in Shonali Bose's drama Margarita with a Straw, playing a young woman with cerebral palsy who leaves her home in India to study in New York City, unexpectedly falls in love, and embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

Kalki Koechlin's character was inspired by Malini Chib, Bose's cousin.

Kalki Koechlin underwent a six-week training workshop with actor Adil Hussain, aimed at making her "body language seem natural", while focusing on the speech pattern of patients with cerebral palsy.

Kalki Koechlin spent considerable time with Chib and her physiotherapist and speech therapist.

Kalki Koechlin attended a month-long workshop in Delhi, where she worked on the movement of the body parts.

Kalki Koechlin garnered widespread attention and critical acclaim for her portrayal of a disabled person.

Kalki Koechlin gave Koechlin the highest praise writing that her performance would have attracted Academy Award notice in a major film studio production.

Kalki Koechlin appeared alongside Parineeti Chopra, Richa Chadda, and Bhumi Pednekar in Y-Films's mini web-series Man's World, a satire on gender roles.

Kalki Koechlin next starred in Anu Menon's comedy-drama Waiting, which depicted the relationship between two people who befriend each other in a hospital, while nursing their respective comatose spouses.

Kalki Koechlin was invited to be a part of the jury presided by Hungarian director Bela Tarr, at the 2016 Marrakech International Film Festival.

Critics, who were appreciative of Kalki Koechlin's performance, called her "ever dependable" and "a perfect fit".

Kalki Koechlin's following release, Howard Rosemeyer's delayed buddy road film Jia Aur Jia co-starring Richa Chadha, focused on two strangers of the same name who embark on a road trip together.

Kalki Koechlin portrayed a sales executive who faces discrimination at the workplace, which was regarded by critics as the most mature performance of her film career.

Kalki Koechlin played a French immigrant in Siddharth Sinha's short film The Job.

Kalki Koechlin was awarded the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government, being presented the award formally by Alexandre Ziegler, the Ambassador of France to India.

In 2019, Kalki Koechlin starred alongside Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt and Siddhant Chaturvedi in Akhtar's musical drama Gully Boy as a record producer who has an affair with the titular character.

Kalki Koechlin reprised her role in the second season which released in 2023.

Kalki Koechlin followed it up with the ZEE5 psychological horror thriller Bhram, which opened to mixed reviews.

In 2022, Kalki Koechlin starred in the English-language drama Goldfish, as a daughter attempting to confront the traumas of her childhood whilst tending to her mother suffering from dementia.

Kalki Koechlin then had a supporting role in the coming-of-age drama Kho Gaye Hum Kahan which starred Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday and Adarsh Gourav in lead roles.

Kalki Koechlin has been associated with theatre from a young age.

Kalki Koechlin's mother was adamant that she complete her studies before venturing into an acting career, sending her to London to study drama and theatre.

Kalki Koechlin has written, produced, and acted in several stage plays in India.

Kalki Koechlin founded her own theatre production company, Little Productions in June 2015.

Kalki Koechlin won The Hindus 2009 The MetroPlus Playwright Award along with Prashant Prakash for the play Skeleton Woman which they co-wrote, directed by Nayantara Kotian.

The play is a modern adaptation of an Inuit folk tale about a writer; Kalki Koechlin played the protagonist's wife.

Kalki Koechlin co-wrote Colour Blind, a play that attempts to rediscover different aspects of the personality of Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore through his life and writings.

In dual roles, Kalki Koechlin plays the Argentine writer and intellectual Victoria Ocampo, and a young woman who is writing a research paper on him.

Kalki Koechlin made her directorial debut on stage with the 2015 play Living Room.

Development of the play began in 2014, when Kalki Koechlin wrote a four-page conversation between Death and an old woman who is in a strange surreal space, about to die but unwilling to exit the world.

Kalki Koechlin further worked on the script of the play in 2015.

Kalki Koechlin worked in Rajat Kapoor's What's Done, Is Done, an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth.

Kalki Koechlin played Lady Macbeth and doubled up as one of the witches for the play.

Kalki Koechlin identifies herself as a feminist and extensively campaigns for the cause of gender equality.

Kalki Koechlin was the ambassador for Cottonworld's "Adopt-A-Tree" initiative, under which the brand provided its customers with viable seeds and instructions of planting a tree, urging them to give back to the environment.

Kalki Koechlin endorsed her eco-friendly lifestyle in an interview with journalist Priyadarshini Nandy, ahead of the 2012 Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad.

Kalki Koechlin starred in a short film, entitled Hawa Badlo, aimed at spreading awareness on the health concerns of air pollution.

Kalki Koechlin is a supporter of animal rights, and appeared in a 2012 PETA advertisement campaign encouraging the adoption of stray cats and dogs.

Kalki Koechlin expressed her support to LGBT community in an International Women's Day interview with The Huffington Post saying that education was essential for developing sensitisation to LGBT rights.

Kalki Koechlin was featured on the March 2015 cover of Bombay Dost, India's first gay magazine.

Kalki Koechlin participated in the 2015 Mumbai Marathon, a charitable event that aimed to spread awareness about issues such as: education, health issues like cancer and AIDS, and senior citizen welfare, accompanied by Shonali Bose's cousin Malini Chib.

Kalki Koechlin began writing poetry during her childhood and has variously performed and recorded self-written poems.

Kalki Koechlin has sporadically recited An Intense Piece about the Truths of Womanhood, a soliloquy, on such events as the International Women's Day special at the India Today Conclave in March 2014 and the 2016 Kalyani Nagar meeting of the FICCI Ladies Organisation.

Kalki Koechlin recited three separate poems focusing on consumerism, the contemporary society, and a comic nursery rhyme at "Spotlight", a poetry slam in Mumbai.

Kalki Koechlin was a member of the jury at the 2016 National Youth Poetry Slam, held in Bangalore.

Kalki Koechlin starred in a 2016 video, entitled Printing Machine that talked about the approach of media and society towards crimes against women, as a part of Culture Machine's video series "Unblushed".

At the SpokenFest 2017, organised by Kommune India, Kalki Koechlin performed a 17-minute act entitled "Fairy Tale".

Kalki Koechlin married filmmaker Anurag Kashyap in April 2011, at her maternal home in Ooty.

Amidst all the news and speculation surrounding the separation, Kalki Koechlin revealed that she regretted being so transparent about her personal life, stating in 2012, "It just takes centre stage instead of your work".

On 30 September 2019, Kalki Koechlin confirmed her pregnancy with her boyfriend, Guy Hershberg, an Israeli musician.

Kalki Koechlin stated in an interview with Daily News and Analysis, that she was a victim of stereotypes in her teenage years and early film career, where she was stereotyped as a '"white girl" in India.

Kalki Koechlin has been acknowledged in the media for her unconventional roles in films and her straightforward personality.

Kalki Koechlin is described as a style icon by the Indian media and has been dubbed as the "queen of experimental fashion".

Kalki Koechlin has been a part of numerous fashion shows, including the Lakme Fashion Week, India International Jewellery Week, and Mijwan Fashion Show.

Kalki Koechlin made a guest appearance at the Milan Fashion Week, one of the global "Big Four Fashion Weeks".

Kalki Koechlin is particularly known in the Indian media and film industry for her dedication to her work.

The director Shonali Bose, while filming Margarita With a Straw, said Kalki Koechlin was able to give perfect long takes for the film because of the "intense hard work that she put into the preparation of her role".

Rajat Kapoor, in whose Hamlet Kalki Koechlin performed as Ophelia, believes she is an actress who has the "sensitivity and understanding of filmmaking and theatre".

Kalki Koechlin is a celebrity endorser and has been associated with several brands and services, including: Coca-Cola, Olay, Vogue, Micromax, Titan, Grey Goose's Style du jour, and AOC International including the cosmetic giant Oriflame.

Kalki Koechlin was the brand ambassador of the "Cinema For Care" section, aimed at creating awareness about disability issues at the All Lights India International Film Festival held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala in November 2015.