Saif Ali Khan

Saif Ali Khan Introduction

Saif Ali Khan is the son of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, the Nawab of Pataudi and actress Sharmila Tagore. His sister is actress Soha Ali Khan. Saif also has another sister. He did his schooling from Lockers Park Prep School. He did his graduation from Winchester College in England. He married actress Amrita Singh in October 1991. They divorced in 2004. They have two children, a daughter named Sara and a son named Ibrahim. In 1992, he made his Bollywood debut in the film Parampara opposite Neelam. In 1993, he won the Filmfare Best Debut Award for the film Aashiq Awara. His acting career went through a relative slump until 2001, when he was cast in Farhan Akhtar's film, Dil Chahta Hai. The success of this film established Saif as one of the industry's most promising stars. In 2006, he was critically acclaimed for his villainous role in the Indian adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, Omkara. Is the Brand Ambassador of Royal Stag, Lenovo, Taj Mahal tea, Asian paints Royale, Chevrolet's mid-sized car Aveo among others.Race has generated good business but the response to Tashan was not as expected. Roadside Romeo is his next release which is expected soon.

Early life

Saif Ali Khan was born into a Muslim family of the Nawabs of Pataudi. His grandfather, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, was the Nawab of Pataudi as well as an accomplished cricketer who played for England and then for India as the captain of the team. His paternal grandmother was Sajida Sultan, Begum of Bhopal and his great-uncle was Pakistani general Nawabzada Sher Ali Khan Pataudi. His father is Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, like Nawab of Pataudi, he was not only the Nawab of Pataudi but also a former captain of the Indian cricket team. Khan has two sisters Saba Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan. Khan's mother is Sharmila Tagore, she is a Bengali Indian film actress, head of the Indian film censorship board and a relative of the Nobel laureate - Rabindranath Tagore. His mother later converted to Islam after her marriage to Khan's father, and changed her name to Begum Ayesha Sultana. He spent his childhood in a Muslim atmosphere, reading the Quran, with his grandmother being the center of his religious education. Khan says that "Religion played a major role in my upbringing."

Initially Khan studied at the Lawrence School Sanawar but later attended Lockers Park Prep School. Later, he followed in his father's footsteps by attending Winchester College, a famous independent school for boys in UK.


As an actor

Saif was meant to make his debut in Bekhudi in 1992 opposite Kajol but the film took off without him.

In that same year, he made his Bollywood debut in the film Parampara as a parallel lead.In 1993, For his next film Aashiq Awara, which also released that year, he won the Filmfare Best Male Debut Award. His breakthrough role came in 1994 with Yeh Dillagi starring opposite Kajol and Akshay Kumar which was his first major hit. Khan went on to star in many films but they failed at the box office. He only had success with multi-starrer hits like Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994), Imtihaan (1995), Kachche Dhaage (1999) and Hum Saath-Saath Hain: We Stand United (1999). After some box office failures he had a hit with the film Kya Kehna (2000).

His acting career, more or less, went through a relative slump until 2001, when he was cast in Farhan Akhtar's contemporary drama Dil Chahta Hai. He received much acclaim for his role as Sameer with critic Taran Adarsh calling it his career-best performance. The success of this film firmly established Saif as one of the industry's most bankable stars.

He has since had many box office successes, starting with Nikhil Advani's drama Kal Ho Na Ho (2003), co-starring alongside Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta. The film, set in New York, starred Saif as Rohit, Zinta's best friend, who later realises that he loves her. The film was the second top-grossing film of the year, and Khan's performance was praised by critics. He won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award, as well as other awards in that category in other award ceremonies. Khan followed it with the leading role in Kunal Kohli's romantic comedy Hum Tum (2004), his first collaboration with Yash Raj Films. The film follows the encounters of the two main characters until they, after several years and various meetings, become friends and finally fall in love. Khan played the role of Karan Kapoor, a young cartoonist and womaniser whose relationship with Rhea Prakash, played by Rani Mukerji, changes his perception of women and life. Khan's performance was applauded by both critics and audiences. He won the Best Comedian award at the Filmfare, and was conferred the coveted National Film Award for Best Actor in 2005. Khan's next project with the Yash Raj Films production, Salaam Namaste (2005), became India's top-grossing film in the overseas market. The film, which was the first Infian film to be entirely shot in Australia, starred Khan and Preity Zinta as a contemporary cohabiting Indian couple. Khan's performance was again well-received by critics. He was also noted for his performance in a negative role in Ram Gopal Verma's Ek Hasina Thi (2004) and for his role of Shekhar Rai in Pradeep Sarkar's Parineeta (2005), an adaptation of the 1914 Bengali novella, Parineeta by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.

In 2006 Khan played the protagonist in the English-language art film, Being Cyrus. His role as Cyros got him positive reviews, and he went on to receive enormous acclaim for his villainous role in the Indian adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, Omkara. Rediff.com stated, "Omkara marks Saif's emergence into the very forefront of his acting peers, and we gleefully applaud". He won the Best Villain awards at all the major award ceremonies, including the Star Screen, Filmfare, Zee Cine and IIFA Awards.

Khan next starred in Eklavya: The Royal Guard, which saw him and starring alongside his mother for the second time since Aashiq Awara. Though the film was a box-office failure, it was a critical success and was chosen as India's official entry to the Oscars, and Khan's performance as Harshwardhan was appreciated by critics. Taran Adarsh commented, "watching him emote with amazing precision makes you realise the giant strides he has taken as an actor".

Khan's 2007 release, Ta Ra Rum Pum was a moderate box office success. In 2008 Khan starred in Race, which went on to well at the Indian and overseas box office. It broke box office records for first week collections. His next films, Tashan and Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, however, performed poorly both critically and commercially.

As of March 2009, Saif will be seen acting in one of his own productions, Love Aaj Kal and Karan Johar's untitled production.

As a producer

Khan turned Producer when he setup his production company called Illuminati Films in 2009. His first film which is titled Love Aaj Kal, will be directed by Imtiaz Ali who directed the successful film Jab We Met. Saif's second film production titled as Agent Vinod, will be directed by Sriram Raghavan. Both films will be made by Saif's production company and will see a UK release by Eros International based in London.