India is a land blessed with cinematic gems and thus, it is more than obvious for every kid to grow up with a dream of becoming a Bollywood star. However, things were a little different for Soha Ali Khan, who was born to a beautiful heroine Sharmila Tagore. Soha had not one but two actors in the house, her mother and her brother Saif Ali Khan. However, she was always “very dismissive of films,” and chose the path of banking.
Interestingly, her life took a turn and she took the bold decision to quit banking and pursue the life of an actor. This happened when Amol Palekar offered her the lead role in his film ‘Paheli.’
During an interaction on Quizzitok, Soha shared that when she initially decided that she wasn’t meant for the world of glam and “A lot of changing outfits and bizarre breaking into song and very regressive in certain ways” were not her scene, her parents, Sharmila and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi were quite relieved,
“My parents were very happy. They had invested very heavily in my education and they wanted me to do something else, and I did. I was a banker,” she said. However, fate had different plans, and just after 13 months of banking career, all it took was an offer from Amol Palekar and Soha was all set to be the Bollywood diva.
“He wanted to launch me, he wanted to launch another actor,” she recalled. However, as the film didn’t work out, Soha realized “you should not quit your well-paid corporate job if someone just offers you a film. There has to be a contract, there has to be a signing amount.” she recalled.
‘Paheli’ was eventually made with Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji.
Meanwhile, Soha decided to not tell her parents about this, but they found out three months later. “I was jobless and I was paying Rs 17,000 rent for a flat in Lokhandwala and I had no income and they were not amused at all,” she recalled.
She continued, “My mother said to my brother, ‘If she joins films, it will be your fault because you would have filled her head with all kinds of things so don’t do that.’”
The reason why Soha was initially hesitant to join the films, was because she didn’t to get into a profession only because it would be seen as an easy way out by others.