Growing up as the children of the Nawab of Pataudi, Mansoor Ali Khan, and actor Sharmila Tagore, Saif Ali Khan and his sisters Soha Ali Khan and Saba Pataudi spent much of their early years living in a palace. Despite this privileged upbringing, they were taught to be mindful of even minor expenses. Soha recently revealed that their father often refused to let her go over to a friend’s house, citing the cost of petrol as too high. Saba, present during the same conversation, added that Saif used to occasionally take money from his sisters’ wallets without asking, only to return it later as their Raksha Bandhan gift.
Saif Ali Khan’s sisters recall childhood free of royal treatment
Speaking on Neha Dhupia and Angad Bedi’s YouTube show, Soha and Saba shared that their upbringing was far from the royal treatment people might expect. Soha explained, “We never got royal treatment during our childhood. Abba would leave yellow Post-it notes asking us to turn the lights off because he knew how much the electricity costs, how much the petrol costs. Even as kids, when I would ask him to go to a friend’s house, he would say no, the petrol is very expensive.” Hearing this left Neha visibly surprised, especially since the Nawab of Pataudi’s careful attitude toward petrol prices existed even in an era when fuel was far cheaper than it is today.
Saif Ali Khan would take money from sisters’ wallets as a child
Saba went on to recall that she and her sister were given Rs 100 as pocket money, and when asked about Saif’s share, she mentioned that he was already away studying in England at the time. Soha then chimed in, saying, “He would anyway steal it.” They further shared that during their trips to England, they would each receive 5 pounds, “which he [Saif] would borrow.” Saba added that Saif had a habit of quietly taking money from her wallet, only to hand it back to her later as a Raksha Bandhan gift. “He has taken money from my wallet and given it to me on Raksha Bandhan. I would say that Rs 50 are missing from my wallet; now I know where they went,” she recalled.
Saif Ali Khan’s father was mindful of expenses even as a stay-at-home parent
In a previous conversation with Hauterrfly, Soha mentioned that her father had essentially been a stay-at-home dad throughout her childhood, since he’d already retired from cricket before she was born. “Also, he was from a royal family, so he didn’t really have a job or an income,” she said. She also recounted that during her mother’s shoot for Mississippi Masala in the US, she was allowed to send just one letter a week, as international post was costly at the time. She recalled, “I remember Abba told me, ‘One letter a week, I’m not sending one letter every day to America. I may be a prince, but it is expensive’.”
