Saif Ali Khan comes from a royal lineage as he is the son of the last Nawab of Pataudi Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. However, the actor who now owns his ancestral palace in Pataudi revealed in an interview, that he had to earn back the palace after it got rented to a hotel chain after his father’s death and did not inherit it per se.

Saif revealed this news to a leading daily in an interview and said, “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!"

RECOMMENDED READ: She is the only person who taught me to take it all seriously: Saif Ali Khan reveals how ex-wife Amrita Singh helped him in his career

The actor revealed that unlike what the people think he had to earn back the house he supposedly inherited. He said “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."

Talking about his childhood and family, he said, “I was born and even raised in Bombay. My father lived with my mother in her (Carmichael Road) flat... He had just finished playing cricket. His last Test series was when I was four/five. My mother (actor Sharmila Tagore) says he was bunking his responsibilities. His mother was looking after things in Bhopal and Pataudi. She’d got old. So we moved to Delhi to live with her.”

(Source: Mid-Day)