Shroff was born as Jai Kishen Shroff into a Gujarati family to Kakubhai & Rita Shroff on 1st February 1957. They lived in a low income chawl in the Teen Batti area in Malabar Hill, Mumbai. Before entering the film industry, Shroff was a local toughie. He also modelled in a few advertisements. It was director/producer Subhash Ghai who gave Shroff his screen name "Jackie" when he launched him in the film Hero.In the late 1980s, Jackie Shroff married his longtime girlfriend, Ayesha Dutt, who later turned film producer. The couple run a media company, Jackie Shroff Entertainment Limited. They jointly owned 10% shares in Sony TV since its launch and in 2012 decided to sell their stake and end their 15-year-long association with Sony TV. The Shroffs have two children: a son, Tiger (Jai Hemant), and a daughter, Krishna.Since the late 1990s, Shroff seems to have moved away from lead roles in Hindi movies and has been seen more often in strong character roles.