Veteran lyricist Gulzar was Saif Ali Khan's guardian in Mumbai when the latter was in his early 20s and just starting out in the industry. We revisit the time when the actor shared an anecdote from his time
Saif Ali Khan
Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, last appeared on the streaming chat show ‘Koffee With Karan’ with his mum Sharmila Tagore in 2023. During the course of the episode, the veteran actress revealed that lyricist Gulzar was Saif’s guardian in Mumbai. On the show, the host Karan revealed that after the university, Saif did a hair commercial in India and stayed back in Mumbai. This was the time the senior actress requested her friend Gulzar and made Saif stay at writer’s house.
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Sharing that incident Saif said, “I stayed there a couple of days. One day I went out. I was 20-19 at the time. So, I came back a little late or rather a little early in the morning and Gulzar sahab was up and I was horrified to see him. He was in a crisp white kurta pyjama, playing the sitar and doing the riyaz and he was horrified to see me coming home at this time.”
Saif further mentioned that Gulzar’s daughter, Meghna Gulzar, the director of ‘Sam Bahadur’, was made to move out of his house. Saif said: “There is also this story about how his very beautiful, young daughter who is such a good filmmaker now, Meghna, was moved out of the house when I moved in. There was some kind of warning given that, ‘This guy is coming’.”
On the show, Saif also spoke about the beginning years of his career in the film industry. Saif made his Bollywood debut with Parampara, directed by Yash Chopra, in 1993. The actor revealed that Yash Chopra stood like a rock through his tough years and saved him and his career.
Saif revealed that after he was fired from Bekhudi, other offers that he had in hand also went away. Talking about the same, Saif said, “So there were a couple of offers which kind of dried up. Rahul Rawail told me, 'This is it. Nobody's going to work with you.' And he was a bit sadistic, I must say, because he kind of enjoyed that. And I thought, okay, and they did dry up. And then Yash Chopra ji called me over. I went over and he said, 'I've heard you're very naughty, you gotta give me your word.' He was casting Parampara with a lot of people in the movie."
He added, "I knew that there was a huge multi-starrer, and he wanted someone for this role, he wasn't finding someone. And he met me and he said, 'You promise to be good.' That was pretty much it. And I said, 'Of course, I promise you I will be.' And he said, 'Okay, you're in the movie.' And overnight, the offers started. You know how it is. If Yash Chopra is casting, then everyone comes. The same people who had said, 'No, we're not interested,' were very interested now. So he saved me."
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