Saif Ali Khan (Hindi: सैफ़ अली ख़ान, Urdu: سیف علی خان; pronounced born August 16, 1970 in New Delhi, India) is an award-winning Indian actor who stars in Bollywood films. He is the son of the Nawab of Pataudi, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, and the actress Sharmila Tagore. He has two sisters; actress Soha Ali Khan, and Saba Ali Khan.
Khan made his debut in 1992 with Parampara. He had his major success with the 1994 films Main Khiladi Tu Anari and Yeh Dillagi. After starring in several box office failures throughout the 1990s, he gained acclaim and rose into prominence with his performance in Dil Chahta Hai (2001), and went on to turn his career professionally after that. He was praised for his performance in Nikhil Advani's hit Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), which won him the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award, and won the coveted National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in another hit Hum Tum (2004). He then had commercial success with films like Salaam Namaste (2005) and Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007), and starred in numerous critically acclaimed projects such as Parineeta (2005) and Omkara (2006). These successes put him among the most successful actors in the industry.
Saif Ali Khan was born into the 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, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, like Nawab of Pataudi Sr., was not only the Nawab of Pataudi but also a former captain of the Indian cricket team. His mother, Sharmila Tagore, is a Bengali Indian film actress, head of the Indian film censorship board and a relative of the Nobel laureate - Rabindranath Tagore. Saif is also distantly related to the late Nafisa Joseph through his mother. Khan has two sisters: Soha Ali Khan and Saba Ali Khan.
Initially 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, a famous independent school for boys in UK.
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 parellel 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 hit film, Dil Chahta Hai, which was an Aamir Khan starrer. 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 such as Kal Ho Na Ho (2003), Hum Tum (2004) and Salaam Namaste (2005). He won lots of critical acclaim for his performance in a rare negative role for the film Ek Hasina Thi (2004) and for Parineeta (2005). His performance in Hum Tum won him the National Film Award for Best Actor.
In 2006 Khan played the lead role in the offbeat English-language film Being Cyrus and bagged enormous acclaim for his villainous role in the Indian adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, Omkara. Critic, Taran Adarsh said "Saif Ali Khan... plays the evil Langda Tyagi brilliantly. His looks, his mannerisms, his body language, his overall behavioral pattern takes you by complete surprise. The actor deserves distinction marks for portraying the role with such realism that you start hating him after a point. Sure, the actor deserves the highest award for this role". 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 Awards, Filmfare Awards and Zee Cine Awards.
His next film Eklavya: The Royal Guard saw him and his mother together for the second time since Aashiq Awara. Though it was a box-office disappointment his performance as Harshwardhan was praised and appreciated by the critics. One critic commented "watching him emote with amazing precision makes you realize the giant strides he has taken as an actor".
His 2007 release Ta Ra Rum Pum did moderately at the box office and his performance was praised.
In 2008 so far, his "Race" was a super hit at the Indian and overseas boxoffice, establishing him further as one of the ruling "khans" of bollywood. It broke box office records for first week collections (eventually smashed by "Singh Is Kinng"). But he couldnt deliver similar hits in "Tashan" (opposite his current girlfriend, Bollywood screen siren Kareena Kapoor) and "Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic" (opposite his "Hum Tum" costar Rani Mukerji).
Khan with girlfriend Kareena Kapoor at the 53rd Annual Filmfare Awards (2008).
Khan married actress Amrita Singh in October 1991. The marriage made news as Amrita was twelve years older than him. After thirteen years of marriage and two children, a daughter named Sara and a son named Ibrahim, the couple divorced in 2004. His children live with their mother.
In 1998, Khan was charged with poaching two blackbucks in Kankani during the filming of Hum Saath Saath Hain along with co-stars Salman Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Neelam. The charges were dropped soon after and Khan was acquitted.
The tabloids have often linked him with many other Bollywood stars, but he has denied all these rumours. After he divorced his wife, Khan began dating Rosa Catalano, whom he broke up with in 2007. Khan is currently dating actress Kareena Kapoor. At the grand finale of the Lakme Fashion Week, he declared that they were indeed a couple and were seeing each other.
On February 18, 2007, Khan was hospitalized at Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai due to experiencing chest pain while rehearsing for his performance at the Stardust Awards, to be held that night. Many film personalities came to see the actor in hospital. After hospitalisation, he stated he would quit smoking.
In 2005, along with other Bollywood stars, Khan performed at the HELP! Telethon Concert to help raise money for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
Khan took part in two major world tours. He was part of a troupe that included Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampal and Priyanka Chopra, which went on the Temptations 2004 world tour. The tour was an international and commercial success, performing nineteen stage shows across the globe.
In 2006, Khan toured again, participating and performing in the successful Heat 2006 concert around the world, along with Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta, Sushmita Sen and Celina Jaitley.
In 2006, Khan appeared along with various other Bollywood actors at the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, as part of a performance showcasing Indian culture along with Rani Mukerji, and Aishwarya Rai on behalf of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, to be held in Delhi.
