How Dubai built Kubbra Sait’s Bollywood backbone: 'The city shaped me to be an independent person'

Dubai: Fifteen years in Mumbai and a splash in Hollywood later, Bollywood actress Kubbra Sait still tips her hat to the city that toughened her skin and sharpened her swagger: Dubai. The actor-anchor-author—who calls herself “as outsider as outsider can be”—didn’t just pack a suitcase when she left the UAE; she packed a whole playbook.

“I think Dubai truly shaped me as an independent person,” she says, matter-of-fact.

“It was the first plane ride I had ever taken in my life… the first home outside my home that I ever lived in. And I built a personality for myself.” That personality came with a corporate polish. “I learned the open door policy because I worked in corporate… not having a hierarchy of, oh, I need to call you sir or I need to call you ma’am… but in India, things work differently. There is hierarchy.”

If Mumbai is a crucible, Dubai was finishing school. Kubbra credits the UAE with giving her vocabulary—and volume—when it came to showing up, speaking up, and knowing when to say no.

“Learning how to communicate, speaking with different people from all over the world, having an independent career, knowing when to say, ‘No’… I think I blossomed into an independent person, and that was only possible because of Dubai.”

Yes, image matters in an industry obsessed with it—but Kubbra’s Dubai-era glow-up wasn’t about labels; it was about self-definition.

“When I moved to Dubai first, I used to wear really big corduroy jeans and oversized T-shirts. And then slowly, I picked up a fashion game. I understood what silhouettes meant… what it meant to carry an expensive bag, or wear fancy shoes… Then I was trying to identify who I am. And now I’m like, I buy something because I like it, not because I need to have it.” That’s not vanity; that’s agency—one that reads in every frame she occupies.

Dubai also gave her contrast—an invaluable actor’s tool. “Dubai is everything that’s big, that’s amazing… And then you come to a city like Mumbai, and you’re like, wow, you can live in this also, you can live in this also. The contrast in Mumbai as a city is so much that I was able to play with both, and then find myself.” ]

Translation: she can switch from red carpet to grind mode without missing her mark.

If you’re hunting for the origin myth, it’s deliciously Dubai.

“I was found by Ali F Mostafa for a film called City of Life. That was my first ever film ever.” And then came the chai-biscuit epiphany that nudged her to India for good.

What Dubai didn’t do was coddle. It readied her for industries where merit and momentum matter.

“All of that was taught to me in Dubai — to hold your own… to carry yourself right amongst people.”

So when Hollywood called with the grand, global sprawl of Foundation, streaming now on Apple TV, Kubbra didn’t flinch.

“I was not auditioning in any pool. I was auditioning in the great big ocean itself… And to land a part where I auditioned in Andheri for this — please… I honestly feel this was bigger than my imagination.”

If there’s a through-line from JLT boardrooms to Andheri casting rooms to international sets, it’s her elasticity.

“Then you understand what the power of being adaptable is. And I am an adaptive human being — when an opportunity is given to me, I adapt to it well… with a sense of ease, with a sense of comfort.” That adaptability is the Dubai muscle memory—multicultural context, fast pivots, zero hand-holding—that she keeps flexing on larger canvases.

Of course, the hustle hasn’t been one smooth tracking shot. She admits to days of doubt, then resets her compass with the same crispness she learned in the Gulf’s corporate corridors.

The motto is simple, unpretentious, and unmistakably Kubbra: keep going. “I know I can do this, I know I’m smart, I know I’m strong… talent is something that you’re born with, but it’s so important to keep honing it, and keep sharpening those skills.”

So yes, Mumbai gave her the arena and Hollywood gave her the horizon. But Dubai? Dubai gave her the tools to make it in these two brutal worlds.

Call it the Kubbra Code, born in a city of superlatives and perfected in a city of survivors: be independent, be adaptable, be undeniable. Or, as she frames it with a wink and a war cry: “Keep doing this, keep going.”