Keeping Up With Kat

Katrina Kaif has had a breakthrough year as an actor, with films like Zero and Bharat. Now she’s navigating uncharted waters, as an entrepreneur with her new beauty brand. Welcome to Kaif’s brave new world

- Shikha Sethi

It’s nearly midnight, and Suite 501 at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai is buzzing with activity. GQ’s Fashion Team has laid out an exotic array of monochromatic clothing along the back of a sofa. There’s a sleek black leather Bottega Veneta dress; a satin and lace Christopher Kane cupcake dress with a plunging neckline; an elegant Burberry gown with feathers. There are perilously high heels and chunkier clogs lined up too, as if in a firing range.

Katrina Kaif ’s entourage is here in full force – her security detail is sat outside the suite, guarding access; her manager is tapping away at a laptop in one corner; her digital assistant, who helps manage her social media accounts, has set up a temporary workstation at the 12-seater dining table.

A minute later, Kaif opens the sliding doors to her bedroom and emerges in a dark blue tee, black sweatpants, her hair half up and fastened with a clip. She’s more petite than I expect, and more energetic, given that she’s just gotten off a flight, and it’s been a long day. Her team may be wilting, not having slept for the past two nights, but not her. It’s T-5 days to the launch of Kaif ’s beauty brand, Kay Beauty, in partnership with Nykaa.

Kaif is right in step with a global trend of celebrities launching make-up lines – everyone from Kylie Jenner to Victoria Beckham to Rihanna – but in India, she’s the first. The stakes are high. “How many magazines are following us [on @KayBeauty]?” she enquires briskly. It’s been about 12 hours since she announced the beauty line’s Instagram handle, and already the account’s amassed 46k followers.