Saif Ali Khan (born 16 August 1970) is an Indian actor in Bollywood films. He is the son of the late Nawab of Pataudi, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, and actress Sharmila Tagore. He has two sisters: Saba Ali Khan and actress Soha Ali Khan.Making his acting debut in 1992 with Parampara, Khan had his first major success with the 1994 films Main Khiladi Tu Anari and Yeh Dillagi. After going through several years of decline in the 1990s, he rose into prominence with his performance in Dil Chahta Hai (2001), which marked his professional turning point. His performance in Nikhil Advani's Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003) won him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor, and he won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in Hum Tum (2004). He then had commercial success with films like Salaam Namaste (2005), Race (2008) and Love Aaj Kal (2009), and starred in critically acclaimed projects such as Parineeta (2005) and Omkara (2006). These accomplishments have established him as one of the leading actors of Hindi cinema and he was awarded the Padma Shri civilian award by the Government of India in 2010. In 2009, Khan branched out into film production with his company Illuminati Films.
Saif Ali Khan has Muslim Pashtun ancestry through Nawabs of Pataudi lineage from his father's side and Hindu Bengali Tagore ancestry from his mother's side. His paternal 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 was Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, the ninth Nawab of Pataudi and a former captain of the Indian cricket team.
Khan has two sisters Saba Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan. Khan's mother is Sharmila Tagore, a Bengali Indian film actress and a member of Bengal's Tagore family. She is also the head of the Indian film censorship board and the grand-niece of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore converted to Islam from Hinduism after her marriage to Khan's father, and changed her name to Begum Ayesha Sultana. Khan spent his childhood in a Muslim atmosphere, reading the Quran, with his grandmother being the centre of his religious education. Khan says that "Religion played a major role in my upbringing." Khan also states that his family is "cool or rather massively open–minded about religious matters." For example, he acknowledges that his daughter is born into a Muslim family, however he states that he will not decide her religion for her.Initially Khan studied at the Lawrence School Sanawar and later attended Lockers Park School in Hertfordshire. He followed in his father's footsteps by attending Winchester College, an independent school for boys in the UK. Khan can speak his native languages of Hindi and Bengali fluently, as well as English.
In 1993, he won the Filmfare Best Male Debut Award for Aashiq Awara. 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 National Film Award-winning Dil Chahta Hai, co-starring Aamir Khan and Akshaye Khanna. Depicting the contemporary routine life of Indian affluent youth, it is set in modern-day urban Mumbai and focuses on a major period of transition in the lives of three young friends. Despite receiving a positive critical reception, it was only a moderate box office success in India; it performed well in the big cities but failed in the rural areas, which was attributed by critics to the urban-oriented lifestyle depicted in the movie. He received much acclaim for his role as Sameer with critic Taran Adarsh calling it his career-best performance.He has since had many box office successes, starting with Nikhil Advani's drama Kal Ho Na Ho (2003), co-starring alongside Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta. The film, set in New York, starred Saif as Rohit, Zinta's best friend, who later realises that he loves her. The film was the second top-grossing film of the year, and Khan's performance was praised by critics. He won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award, as well as other awards in that category in other award ceremonies.
