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Home > Profile > Saif Ali Khan Saif Ali Khan
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Early Years:
Saif Ali Khan was born into the family of the Nawabs of Pataudi in Haryana. His grandfather, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, was the Nawab of Pataudi. An accomplished cricketer he had played for England and then led India in the ‘40s. His paternal grandmother was Sajida Sultana, who became the Begum of Bhopal.His father, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, a brilliant cricketer, had captained Oxford University (UK) cricket team before leading the Indian team in the ‘60s, in spite of severely hurting an eye in a road accident in England. His mother, Sharmila Tagore, a Bengali, comes from the family of the legendary Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. After making her debut in Satyajit Ray’s Devi, she enterd Hindi films to be a top-ranking heroine in the ‘60s and the ‘70s. She is currently the chairperson of Indian film censor board. Saif has two sisters: Soha Ali Khan, an actress, and Saba Ali Khan, a jewellery designer in Delhi.
Saif 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, one of the best known English public schools for boys in the city of Winchester in Hampshire, England. He came back to India to try his luck as an actor in Hindi films.
Debut:
Saif Ali Khan was first signed on by director Rahul Rawail for the romantic lead in Kajol’s launch film Bekhudi (1992) written by Kajol’s Godfather, ace glamour photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha. However, the film took off without him due to his ‘irresponsible behaviour’. He made his debut the same year in the multi-starrer, Parampara, directed by Yash Chopra for the Nadiadwalas. Curiously, he won Filmfare’s Best Male Debut award for Umesh Mehra’s Aashiq Awara (1993), released two weeks later.
Career Graph:
 After the failure of both Parampara and Aashiq Awara, his breakthrough role came in Yeh Dillagi (1994) co-starring Akshay kumar and Kajol. The success of the film as well as the number, which brought out his dancing skills kept Saif in the reckoning for a while. Though his films like Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994), Imtihaan (1995), Kachche Dhaage (1999) and Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999) did well or moderately well at the box office, being multi-starrers they didn’t give much credit to Saif. Kya Kehna (2000), a big hit, revolved around Preity Zinta.
With Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai (2001), his career took a new turn. His excellent performance in the film and its commercial success instantly shot Saif to the big league. His run of success continued with Kal Ho Na Ho (2003), Hum Tum (2004), Ek Hasina Thi (2004), Salaam Namaste (2005), Parineeta (2005) and Omkara (2006). He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in Hum Tum. He was critically acclaimed for his brilliant performance in the off-beat English film Being Cyrus and Vishal Bharadwaj’s Omkara as a villain, which won him the Best Villain Award at the Star Screen, Filmfare and Zee Cine awards. His growth as a top-class actor was obvious through Hum Tum, Ek Hasina Thi, Kal Ho Na Ho, Parineeta, Omkara, Eklavya and the off-beat English film Being Cyrus. Adding to his stature was the box-office success of his solo-hero films Hum Tum and Ek Hasina Thi. His only setback in 2007 was the failure of Yash Raj Films’ Ta Ra Rum Pum opposite Rani Mukherjee.
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