Actress, Sharmila Tagore and cricketer, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi made headlines with their wedding back in 1968. The union was arguably the centre of all reports, with cinema and cricket being two of the most loved aspects of Indian society. However, in a recent conversation with Just Too Filmy, their daughter and actress, Soha Ali Khan, gave some insight into her parent’s dynamics and who brought the food to the table.
Soha Ali Khan revealed Sharmila Tagore was the breadwinner of their family
Soha Ali Khan, in a recent conversation with Just Too Filmy, revealed that her mother and veteran actress, Sharmila Tagore, was the primary breadwinner of their family. She shared that while her father and cricketer, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, was an ace sportsman, professional cricket did not pay much back in the day. Mansoor, also known as ‘Tiger Pataudi’, was also the ‘Nawab’ of Pataudi, a princely state in pre-independence India.
However, his income was shallow, and her father played cricket for fun and not to bring home a livelihood. Soha Ali Khan recalled that her father, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was her role model. Nonetheless, by the time she was born, he had already retired but often played for enjoyment and his love for cricket. She revealed that there was no money in it as there were no endorsements back in the day. She was quoted as saying:
“We are often influenced by people who are close to us, and one big role model for me was my father. By the time I was born, he had retired from cricket, but he played for the enjoyment of the sport. There was no money at all if you can believe it, in cricket when my father was playing in the 1960s. No IPL, no endorsements, nothing.”
In the same conversation, Soha revealed how her mother was the breadwinner. She shared that Sharmila supported her father, Mansoor, and he encouraged her to do what made her happy. Soha added that while marriage can usually take a hit on a woman’s career, her mother had some of her biggest successes after marriage. She stated:
“My mother was the breadwinner in the family, so I always saw him saying, ‘You should do what makes you happy’, and I also saw my mother, who also has been an actor her whole life, and she still chose to do whatever her heart prompted her to do. At the age of 24, she got married even though you typically don’t do that if you are a woman. You know that when you get married, your career will take a bit of a hit. She had a child a couple of years later, and she continued to work. She had some of her biggest successes after that.”
Soha Ali Khan previously revealed her parents, Sharmila Tagore and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, received threats when they got married
Soha Ali Khan previously shared about her parents, Sharmila and Mansoor, during a conversation with Twinkle Khanna on Tweak India. She revealed that when her parents got married in 1968, the tension surrounding their inter-faith relationship played a huge role in that. She added how one of the threats was that ‘bullets shall speak’. Sharmila and Mansoor were married for 43 years till he passed away in 2011. She stated:
“My family had organised the wedding at Fort William because they were very worried about what might happen since there were a lot of threats. But, Fort Williams refused at the last minute because some of the baraats that were coming had some Army connection. In the end, they found some Ambassador friend’s big house.”
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