How Saif Ali Khan earned back the Rs 800 crore ancestral Pataudi Palace

The ancestral property operated as The Pataudi Palace Hotel between 2005 and 2014 before being repossessed by Saif Ali Khan.

Saif Ali Khan is not only Bollywood royalty, but also blue blooded for real. The Jawaani Jaanemann actor, who is the son of the late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and yesteryear actor, Sharmila Tagore, shared that he had to earn back his ancestral palace in Pataudi after it was rented out to a hotel chain after his father’s passing, despite how people popularly believe that he inherited it. According to an interview in IndiaToday.in, Saif spoke about the assumptions that he inherited the beautiful Pataudi Palace from his father.

“People have a certain fixed notion. For that matter, even (with) Pataudi (palace), when my father (Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi) died, it got rented to Neemrana Hotels. Aman (Nath) and Francis (Wacziarg) used to run (the hotel). Francis passed away. He’d said that if I wanted (the palace) back, I could let him know. I said that I want it back. They held a conference, and said, okay, you have to give us lots of money,” Saif said in the interview.

Francis Wacziarg and Aman Nath, owners of the Neemrana Hotels network of “non-hotel hotels” and the late Mansoor Ali Khan worked out a 17-year lease. The ancestral property operated as The Pataudi Palace Hotel between 2005 and 2014 before being repossessed by Saif Ali Khan.

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The Jawaani Jaaneman star also added that he had to earn back something he was meant to inherit, saying, “The house I’m supposed to have inherited has been earned back through money from films. You can’t live off the past. At least we can’t in our family, because there was nothing. There is history, culture, beautiful photographs; and, of course, some land. It has been a privileged upbringing. But there’s been no inheritance.”

Interesting facts about Pataudi Palace

The princely estate is also known as ‘Ibrahim Kothi’ and is situated in the town of Pataudi in Haryana’s Gurgaon district.

The holiday home, frequented by Saif, Kareena Kapoor Khan and little Taimur in the winters, is spread across 10 acres and has 150 rooms, including seven dressing rooms, seven bedrooms, seven billiard rooms, as well as palatial drawing rooms and dining rooms. The property is valued at a whopping Rs 800 crores.

Saif’s grandfather, the last ruling nawab, Iftikhar Ali Khan passed on Pataudi Palace to his son, the last recognised titular nawab, Mansoor Ali khan.

The Palace has also served as a site for shooting movies including the Julia Roberts starrer Eat Pray Love, and Bollywood movies like Mangal Pandey, Veer Zara, Gandhi: My father and Mere Brother ki Dulhan.

Built in the style of Imperial Delhi’s colonial mansions, Pataudi Palace was designed by Robert Tor Russell in the early 1900’s. Robert was assisted by Austrian architect Karl Molt von Heinz. However, Saif upon repossessing the palace wanted it to have a sense of comfort and understated style rather than excessive luxury, so he got the family home refurbished by interior designer Darshini Shah.