23-10-2020

Saif Ali Khan just paid off a lease amount of Rs 800 crore for his ancestral home, the Pataudi Palace, but he thinks it's a 'massive exaggeration'. Now, he just wants to swim, cook and read in the gorgeous country home.

The books are back in place and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi's cricket photographs are back on the wall, Saif Ali Khan is happy to have the Pataudi palace back in the family. In an interview, Saif Ali Khan confirmed that he paid off a sum of Rs 800 crore in lease to the Neemrana Group Hotels and now has full stake in his ancestral property. But Saif Ali Khan thinks the Rs 800 crore-price tag on the Pataudi Palace is a massive exaggeration, because it is impossible to put a price tag on the Pataudi Palace. After all, how do you factor in the emotions?

WHY DID SAIF PAY RS 800 CRORE?
Saif's father Mansoor Ali Khan had leased the Pataudi Palace to Neemrana Hotels because by the time he came to his own, monarchy and titles had been abolished, unlike when the Pataudi Palace was built, a 100 years ago, by Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, Saif's grandfather for Sajida Sultan, his grandmother.

"My father leased it out and Francis (Wacziarg) and Aman (Nath), who ran a hotel there took good care of the property. My mother (Sharmila Tagore) has a cottage there and she was always very comfortable," Saif said in the interview.

SAIF DID NOT 'BUY BACK' THE PATAUDI PALACE, HE ONLY PAID OFF THE LEASE
Saif, in the interview, clarifies that contrary to what has been reported, he did not actually buy the property back because the Pataudis still owned it. He only paid off the lease. "It was a fair financial arrangement and contrary to reports, I did not have to buy it back because I already owned it," Saif said. While the terms of the lease were amicable, after the death of his father in 2011, Saif Ali Khan wanted to wrap up the lease and get the property back into the family. So when the opportunity presented itself, Saif paid up and took his home back.