Saif Ali Khan

Saif Ali Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi (pronounced [ˈsæːf əˈli xaːn]; born Sajid Ali Khan Pataudi; 16 August 1970) is an Indian actor and film producer who primarily works in Hindi films. The titular head of the Pataudi family since 2011, he is the son of actress Sharmila Tagore and cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Khan has won several awards, including a National Film Award and seven Filmfare Awards, and received the Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award in 2010.

Khan made his acting debut in Parampara (1993), and had success in the multi-starrers Yeh Dillagi (1994), Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994), Kachche Dhaage (1999) and Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999). In the 2000s, he gained praise and won multiple awards for his roles in the romantic comedies Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), and had success as a solo male star in the romances Hum Tum (2004), Parineeta, Salaam Namaste (both 2005) and Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007).

Khan also earned critical acclaim for playing a manipulative businessman in Ek Hasina Thi (2004), an apprentice in the English film Being Cyrus (2006) and the Iago character in Omkara (2006). He had further commercial success in the action thrillers Race (2008) and Race 2 (2013), and the romantic comedies Love Aaj Kal (2009) and Cocktail (2012). Between another string of under-performing ventures, Khan was appreciated for headlining Netflix's first original Indian series Sacred Games (2018–2019) and had his highest-grossing releases in the action films Tanhaji (2020) and Devara: Part 1 (2024).

Khan has been noted for his roles in a range of film genres—from crime dramas to action thrillers and comic romances. In addition to his film career, Khan is a frequent television presenter and stage performer, endorses various brands and products, and owns the production companies Illuminati Films and Black Knight Films. Khan was married to his first wife, Amrita Singh, for thirteen years, after which he married actress Kareena Kapoor. He has four children—two with Singh and two with Kapoor.

Early life and family

Khan was born on 16 August 1970 in New Delhi, India to Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, a former captain of the India national cricket team, and his wife Sharmila Tagore, a film actress. Khan's father, who was the son of the last ruling Nawab of the princely state of Pataudi during the British Raj, received a privy purse from the government of India under terms worked out in the political integration of India, and was allowed to use the title Nawab of Pataudi until 1971 when the title was abolished. Following Mansoor Ali Khan's death in 2011, a symbolic pagri ceremony was held in the village of Pataudi, Haryana to "crown" Khan as the "tenth Nawab of Pataudi", which Khan attended to please the sentiments of the villagers, who wanted him to continue a family tradition. Khan has two younger sisters, jewellery designer Saba Ali Khan and actress Soha Ali Khan.

He is the paternal grandson of Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, who played for the Indian cricket team in England in 1946, and Sajida Sultan, the Nawab Begum of Bhopal. Hamidullah Khan, the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal was his great-grandfather, and the cricketer Saad Bin Jung is his first cousin. He is also the great-grandnephew of Nawab Begum of Bhopal Abida Sultan, the great-grandnephew of Major-General Sher Ali Khan Pataudi who served as the Chief of General Staff of the Pakistan Army, the grandnephew of Shahryar Khan (diplomat and former Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board) and Ashiq Hussain Qureshi (Pakistani cricketer), his paternal uncle Major-General Isfandiyar Ali Khan Pataudi (son of Sher Ali Khan Pataudi), has served as the Deputy Director General of Pakistan's ISI. He has also a family connection with Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib, as both Ghalib and Khan's paternal great-grandfather married daughters of the Nawab of Loharu.

Speaking about his childhood, Khan said that he was exposed to a "life beyond movies", and his mother described him as someone who was "not an easy child [...] He was impulsive [and] spontaneous." Saif grew up a Muslim. As a child, he recalls fond memories of watching his father playing cricket in the garden and has emphasized that his father's education and background had a lasting impression on how family life was conducted. Khan studied at The Lawrence School, Sanawar in Himachal Pradesh, and was later sent to Lockers Park School in Hertfordshire at the age of nine. He next enrolled at Winchester College and explained that "I did not take advantage of my tenure [there]. My classmates went on to Oxford and Cambridge, but I was not academically inclined. When I applied myself, which was not often, I stood first. I should have studied harder."

After graduating from the boarding school, Khan returned to India and worked for an advertising firm in Delhi for two months. He later appeared in a television commercial for Gwalior Suiting upon the insistence of a family friend, and was subsequently cast by director Anand Mahindroo. The project eventually got cancelled but Khan relocated to Mumbai to pursue a career in film; he recalls, "Finally I had some direction and focus. I remember [...] feeling so excited that I could go to Mumbai, stay in my own place and enjoy the adventure of starting my own career."

Personal life and career

First marriage, early roles, and breakthrough (1991–2000)

In 1991, Khan was cast as the male lead in Rahul Rawail's romantic drama Bekhudi (1992) alongside debutante Kajol. After completing the first shooting schedule of the film, he was considered to be unprofessional by Rawail, and was replaced by Kamal Sadanah. While filming Bekhudi, Khan met actress Amrita Singh whom he married in October 1991. Singh gave birth to their daughter Sara in 1995, and to their son Ibrahim in 2001. The couple separated in 2004.

In 1993, Khan made his acting debut with Yash Chopra's Parampara. The film, which tells the story of two estranged brothers (played by Aamir Khan and Khan), failed to find a wide audience. The same year, he appeared opposite Mamta Kulkarni and Shilpa Shirodkar in the box office Hit Aashiq Awara and Average Grosser Pehchaan. For his performance in the former, Khan earned the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut at the 39th Filmfare Awards.

Following an appearance in the successful Imtihaan (1994) with Raveena Tandon and Sunny Deol, Khan paired up with Akshay Kumar for his next two releases— Yash Raj Films' hit romantic comedy-drama Yeh Dillagi and the action film Main Khiladi Tu Anari. The former was an unofficial remake of the 1954 Hollywood film Sabrina, and depicted a love triangle between a chauffeur's daughter (played by Kajol) and the two sons of her father's employers (played by Kumar and Khan). Main Khiladi Tu Anari (the second film in the Khiladi series) featured Khan as an aspiring actor, and emerged as the fifth highest-grossing film of the year. Bollywood Hungama reported that the success of both films proved a breakthrough for Khan, and his performance in Main Khiladi Tu Anari fetched him his first nomination for the Best Supporting Actor at the Filmfare Awards. The Indian Express singled out his performances in both films, noting his comic timing in the latter kept the audience "in splits whenever he appears on screen". Khan's next two releases of the year, the dramas Yaar Gaddar and Aao Pyaar Karen, were unsuccessful. His career observed a steady decline through the 1990s; all nine films he starred in—Surakshaa (1995), Ek Tha Raja (1996), Bambai Ka Babu (1996), Tu Chor Main Sipahi (1996), Dil Tera Diwana (1996), Hameshaa (1997), Udaan (1997), Keemat: They Are Back (1998) and Humse Badhkar Kaun (1998)—were commercially Average Grossers and some unsuccessful. During this time, critics perceived his career to be over.