Did you know Tiger Shroff’s handsome looks come from his Gujarati, Turk, Belgian roots?

Actor Tiger Shroff, whose real name is Jai Hemant Shroff, made his movie debut in 2014’s Heropanti. Since then, he has carved a niche for himself as a dependable action star. He has successfully starred in two Baaghi films and will soon begin work on the next one. On his birthday on Tuesday, here’s a look at his family background.

When Jackie Shroff’s young son burst on the Hindi film scene, he had to face a fair bit of trolling online. Fans were quick to notice his not-so-desi a face. Many believed it bore a striking resemblance with actor Kareena Kapoor Khan. In fact, his morphed images started to do the rounds on the internet.

A collage showing Tigers similarities with Kareena Kapoor Khan.

He had laughed off the comparison and had in fact taken it as a compliment. In an interview with Hindustan Times when asked as to whether he had seen his picture collage with Kareena online, he had said: “Yes, I’ve seen it. It was quite funny. I take it as a compliment to be compared to a woman as pretty as Kareena Kapoor Khan. She’s so beautiful and, at the end of the day, beauty is beauty.”

The point had been noted; there was something different in his looks as was evident with Heropanti. His superbly muscular body, next-to-impossible action sequences, agility and flexibility and remarkable gave viewers something else to talk about.

Two years later, Tiger had emerged as the India’s answer to Hollywood’s Rambo. But what about his looks? The secret of his good looks lies hidden in his family background, a melting pot of diverse ethnic groups.

We all know that Tiger is the older of the two children of 90s star Jackie Shroff and former model and producer Ayesha Shroff (formerly Dutt). But not many of us would know that both Jackie and Ayesha’s mothers disn’t originally belong to India.

Jackie’s mother is a Turk from Kazakhstan while Ayesha’s mother is from Belgium. Jackie’s father Kakubhai Shroff is from Gujarat, while Ayesha’s dad was a Bengali gentleman who had also been an Air Vice Marshal in the Indian Air Force.

Back in 2015, in an interview to PTI, Jackie had said how he would want to make a documentary of his mother one day. “I have grown up listening to my mother’s stories about how she and her siblings along with their grandmother came from central Asia to the island city of Mumbai. Hers’ is a great story and I want to chronicle it. I want to write it or if not that then I will surely make a documentary on her journey.”

In another interview to The Telegraph, he had said how given his background, the biggest virtue he had learned was tolerance. “My father was from Rajkot in Kathiawad, Gujarat and my mother, from Turkmenistan, which was then a part of the USSR. Both didn’t have a problem marrying someone from a land far away from theirs. I learnt the value of tolerance and coexistence, respecting and loving each other as fellow human beings.”

In an interview with Rajya Sabha TV, Jackie had spoken in detail about how her mother’s family moved from Kazakhstan: “Unke wahan coup ho gaya tha. Hamari ammi Turkmani thi. During the coup, the Kazakhi aate the, hamla karne. Inki joh bachchiyan theen, inhone apne badal pe garlic paste lagaya toh unko skin par phodey ho gaye. Toh unko (soldiers) lagaa ke shayad lepers hain, toh chhod dia… unko touch mat karo. Unhe lagaa kodd ki bimari hai. Toh woh bach gayin, kuch saat bachiyan aur kuch auraten. Phir woh aaye Ladakh. (There was a coup in her homeland. My mom was a Turk. Kazakh soldiers came. These girls {including his mother} put garlic paste on their body. They got boils on their body due to it but when the soldiers came, they thought they were lepers and did not touch them and left them alone. Then, from there, seven young girls and some women moved to Ladakh).”

From there, her family loved to Lahore, then Delhi and later Mumbai. That’s where his mother met her father and they decided to get married. About his father, Jackie said in the same interview, how he was an astrologer with a family background in stock trading. He lost money in trading and had to leave home. Both his parents met in Mumbai and decided to get married.

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Ayesha’s family was reportedly more privileged. Her father, Ranjan Dutt, served in the IAF and married a Belgian national– Claude Marie Dutt De Cavey. If you have always wondered about Tiger’s sister, Krishna Shroff’s high cheek bones, you should know where they come from.