New Delhi:
As actor Saif Ali Khan recovers, mentally and physically, from a shocking knife attack during a burglary attempt at his Mumbai home, he faces a legal fight over his family’s property in Bhopal, estimated to be worth around Rs 15,000 crore.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently lifted the stay on his ancestral property and the actor may lose it to the government under the Enemy Property Act, 1968.
A Legal Headache For Saif Ali Khan
The actor’s family owns multiple properties in Bhopal, including the Flag Staff House, where he spent his childhood, Noor-Us-Sabah Palace, Dar-Us-Salam, Bungalow of Habibi, Ahmedabad Palace and Kohefiza Property, among others. Mr Khan inherited this property from his grandmother Sajida Sultan. Sajida Sultan was the daughter of Bhopal’s last Nawab Hamidullah Khan. Hamidullah Khan’s eldest daughter, Abida Sultan, migrated to Pakistan in 1950. Her sister, Sajida, stayed on in India and married Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, the Nawab of Pataudi and Mr Khan’s grandfather. Sajida inherited her father’s property and this passed on to Mr Khan. In 2015, however, it was declared that Abida was the legal heir to her father’s assets and since she migrated to Pakistan, they can be acquired by the government under the Enemy Property Act. A 2019 order recognised Sajida as the heir and brought relief to the family.
But the latest order is a fresh headache for the family and Mr Khan and his mother and veteran actor Sharmila Tagore must navigate this to reclaim their family property. For clarity, the Enemy Property Act allows the Centre to claim properties owned by individuals who migrated to Pakistan post-Partition.
‘A Nawab With No Inheritance’
In a 2019 interview with Midday, Mr Khan had said that he had buy back the Pataudi Palace in Gurugram after the death of his father and ace cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. “When my father died, it was rented to the Neemrana Group of Hotels.” He said that the hotel group told him that if he wanted it back, he would have to pay “lots of money”. “I then earned and… so even the house that’s supposedly inherited has been earned back through money from films,” he said. “There was nothing, there is some history and culture, beautiful photographs and of course, some land and it has been a privileged upbringing, but there has been no inheritance,” the actor said.
The actor has said he was born in Mumbai, but subsequently lived in Bhopal, Pataudi (Gurugram) and Delhi. Mr Khan said during the interview that it was his grandmother, Sajida, who was looking after the family’s properties in Bhopal. “When she got old, we moved to Delhi to live with her. Nice, big old house in Delhi which she had been given for her lifetime. in return for land and property and all those kind of deals that these old families had made with the Indian government.”
Saif’s Chat With NDTV When He Became Nawab
NDTV caught up with Mr Khan in October 2011, shortly after his father died and he became the titular Nawab of Pataudi. Speaking to veteran journalist Shekhar Gupta in the popular show Walk The Talk, Mr Khan spoke about his father’s death due to an acute lung infection. “It’s possibly one of the most disturbing and painful ways to go. It seems to have a mind of its own, this disease. It can either stall or accelerate, we don’t know anything about it,” he said.
During the same interview, Mr Khan had explained how his family approached their nawab status. “My grandfather was more famous for getting a hundred against the Australians and then saying he doesn’t want to play bodyline. So gentlemanly act of genuine chivalry.” Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi is the only Test cricketer to have played for both India and England.
“My father was, again, less as a nawab, of course there is his lungi and kurta and his liking for classical music,” he said.
Saif Ali Khan with parents Tiger Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore and sisters Soha and Saba
Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Nawabzade’ anecdote
In the same interview, Mr Khan had said films show nawabs with a negative connotation and narrated an awkward incident during the shooting of the 2000 film Kya Kehna. “There was a dialogue in which one of the chaps catches me because I am not being very nice to his sister and says, haraamzada (meaning bastard). There were some sensor problems and we had to dub over haraamzada. The producer, director said ‘just say nawabzaada, it’s the same thing’. I said, ‘really?’ It’s quite funny.
Mr Khan also remembered his father’s sense of humour. “There was that story about when he dislocated his shoulder and he was in hospital and they were trying to put it back. He was shouting in pain. The doctors said to him, ‘Tiger, there is a woman who has given birth to twins and she is not making as much noise as you are.’. He said, ‘tell her to try putting them back’.