How Katrina Kaif went from ‘zero’ to Bollywood’s dance queen

Katrina Kaif has become one of Bollywood’s most recognisable dance performers over the years, but choreographer Bosco Martis has revealed that she was once dismissed as having no dancing ability at all.

Speaking on a podcast hosted by Bosco and Caesar, the two choreographers looked back at Katrina’s early career and how she evolved into a performer known for some of Hindi cinema’s biggest dance numbers.

Bosco recalled an incident from the start of Katrina’s career, when a choreographer dismissed her dancing outright despite her efforts. “She worked very hard, but a choreographer told Katrina, ‘You are zero in dance, so you should quit,’” Bosco said.

He suggested the harsh assessment may have pushed Katrina to work harder and prove her critics wrong. Fellow choreographer Farah Khan, reacting to the story, said she doubted Katrina had truly started from nothing. “Oh, poor thing! She wouldn’t have remained a zero. She must have been a four or five,” she said.

Farah pointed to Sheila Ki Jawaani as the moment everything changed for Katrina as a dancer. “After Sheila Ki Jawaani, she became a nine or 10,” she said, noting that Katrina went on to headline dance numbers such as Chikni Chameli and Kala Chashma. Bosco described the song as a “game changer” for the actor.

She also recalled that when she first worked with Katrina on Just Chill from Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya, the actor was not yet seen as a dancer to watch.

Katrina has spoken in the past about being told she could not dance, saying the criticism left her doubting whether she would ever become good at it. She has credited Bosco with reassuring her at the time that she could dance but needed to keep working on her craft, encouragement that helped shift her approach.

Bosco and Caesar went on to choreograph her for Touch Me from Race.

Katrina’s later filmography included several of Bollywood’s most popular dance sequences, among them Kamli, Swag Se Swagat, Afghan Jalebi and Nachde Ne Saare, alongside Chikni Chameli and Kala Chashma.

She was last seen on screen in Merry Christmas in 2024 and has since stepped back from films to focus on motherhood.