Inside Saif Ali Khan's Rs 800 crore Pataudi Palace that sprawls across 10 acres: 150 rooms, lush gardens designed by the man behind Delhi's Connaught Place

Indian Express

4 hours ago

Saif Ali Khan was born a nawab to Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and film actor Sharmila Tagore, and he inherited the Pataudi Palace after his father's death. Also known as Ibrahim Kothi, the palace was built by his grandfather Nawab Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi when he wanted to marry his grandmother, Sajida Sultan, the princess of Bhopal. Saif's grandfather ran out of money while he was constructing the palace, which is why a portion of it has marble floors, and other parts have a cement floor.
Sprawled across 10 acres in Haryana, the palace is currently estimated to be worth Rs 800 crore, as per The Times of India. The palace's construction was completed in 1935 by architect Robert Tor Russell, who had also worked on Connaught Place in Delhi. Over the last 90 years, the palace has been in possession of the family, but for a short while from 2005-2014, the palace was leased out to the Neemrana Hotels group, until Saif bought them out of the contract. The family now uses the house for themselves, but also rents it out as a shooting location. The palace has 150 rooms.
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In an earlier chat with Mid-Day, Saif said that even though he was supposed to inherit the palace, he had to buy it back because it was on lease for nearly a decade. 'I've learnt that you cannot argue against narratives — whether or not they're true. People have a certain fixed notion. For that matter, even [with] Pataudi [palace], when my father [Mansur 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: I want it back. They held a conference, and said, okay, you have to give us lots of money.'
Saif said that the money he earned through films helped him in 're-buying' the palace. 'So, even 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,' he said.
But, later, Saif clarified, that he did not buy the palace again but just cleared the lease. He told Bollywood Bubble, 'It wasn't really re-buying, it was like clearing a lease.'
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In an earlier chat with India Today, Saif revealed that his grandmother told him to never turn the palace into a hotel, since it has a lot of history, but his father felt that if they had to move with the times, they had to consider that option. 'Heritage-wise, the house belongs to different people over time. My father was born a nawab, he was a nawab. He lived life on his terms, and he was the most amazing man. He said that times have changed, and decided to rent the house out to a hotel… I remember my grandmother telling me, 'Never do that'. It's got a lot of history, and that's something I take pride in,' he said.
Soha Ali Khan, in a chat with Housing.com, shared that the palace's generator room was converted into a 2-BHK when it was used as a hotel, and she has inherited that. 'The palace was leased to Neemrana Hotels, and when it was, my parents needed a place to live, so the generator room was made into a very nice equivalent of a two-BHK,' she said.
In the same chat with India Today, Saif shared, 'My grandparents are buried there, my father is buried there. It's my family home. There are lot of these old houses, we call them the darbar halls, but I find that an outdated name. I want to call it the long room, after the hall at Lord's. This house was built by the seventh nawab of Pataudi, and my father. I want to put up their cricket places and bats, and I really want to restore this house with their spirit. That's been my dream, and it's almost done.'