Here’s Why Alia Bhatt And Katrina Kaif Didn’t Vote During The 2024 Lok Sabha Elections

The fifth phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2024 in Mumbai became a starry affair when several Bollywood celebrities stepped out to cast their votes on Monday. Famous actors and filmmakers from the Bollywood industry like Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar, Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh, Hema Malini, Esha Deol, Randeep Hooda, and Hrithik Roshan went to exercise their vote in the Lok Sabha Polls. Many celebs from the industry have been encouraging people to exercise their votes and sharing images of their marked fingers on social media.

However, there are a few actors from Bollywood who cannot vote in the ongoing Lok Sabha Polls including Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif, Nora Fatehi, Imran Khan, and Jacqueline Fernandez.

Why Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif couldn’t cast their vote during the Lok Sabha Election?

When Alia was promoting her Hollywood debut ‘Heart of Stone’, co-starring Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan, she answered the most Googled questions about her, and one of them was,

“Is Alia Bhatt British?”

In a video for Wired, Gal Gadot asked Alia if she is a British citizen, the star nodded and answered,

“My mom was born in Birmingham, but I was born and brought up in India.”

Gal also asked her,

“She spoke British English with you your entire life?”

 

Alia replied,

“My grandmother lived in England for her whole life so my grandmother has the English accent.”

Alia’s mother Soni Razdan previously shared that though she was born in the UK, she lived in India for most of her life. She told The Indian Express,

“I was born in the UK but when I was three months old, I moved to Bombay. My mother got the British passport for me. We lived in south Bombay and I studied in Bombay International School, which was started by my parents. As for my passport, why should anyone tell me what I should do about it? It is my choice and right as a citizen of the world to decide what passport I want.”

As Alia holds a British passport like her mother, the Indian law prohibits her from voting in elections.

Katrina Kaif, too, holds a British passport

Actress Katrina’s father, Mohammed Kaif, is a British businessman of Kashmiri descent, and her mother Suzanne Turquotte is an English lawyer and charity worker.

When questioned about her citizenship, Katrina had earlier told the Asian Age,

“I am an Indian and my father is Indian. I have an Indian heritage. There are many actresses who hold different passports. One could hold a different passport due to various reasons. But my father is Indian and that is my origin”

She added,

“Although my mother is British, India has always been my home. It has been my home since the time I was 17. This is the country in which I live and work.”

So, despite being a well-known personality in India, she is not eligible to vote in Indian elections.

Here are the other celebs who cannot take part in Indian elections

• Actress-dancer Nora Fatehi holds a Canadian passport and is also not an Indian citizen. Her parents are from Morocco, giving her Moroccan descent.

• Actress Jacqueline Fernandez holds official citizenship of the neighboring country, Sri Lanka as she was born there. She is also a popular face in Bollywood.

• Actor Imran Khan is an American by birth and he was born in Madison, Wisconsin. His father is a Software Engineer and his mother is a psychologist. However, after his parents got divorced, Imran moved to India.

Did you know this was Akshay Kumar’s first time voting for the Lok Sabha Polls? Yes, the actor officially got his Indian citizenship last year in August 2023.

Do you plan on exercising your voting rights for the Lok Sabha Polls? Let us know in the comments.