Veteran actress Sharmila Tagore has praised her son Saif Ali Khan’s approach to parenting, calling him “an excellent parent” during the latest episode of the podcast All About Her hosted by Soha Ali Khan.
The episode featured Sharmila alongside her granddaughter Sara Ali Khan in a candid discussion on family, career and what it means to be a woman.
Talking about how parenting styles have changed over generations, Sharmila said she learned a great deal by watching her own children raise theirs. She revealed that while she relied heavily on elders in the family while raising Saif and Soha, today’s parents often turn to books and peers for advice.
Sharmila highlighted Saif’s ability to balance professional commitments with parental responsibility when Sara was young. “Saif has been an excellent parent. I have seen him with you [Sara]. Like if they had to go to a premiere in the middle of the night, she went with them but we can see it hasn’t harmed her, and she would come back and do her homework,” the 80-year-old actress said.
She also recalled an incident from her grandson Ibrahim Ali Khan’s childhood which reshaped her own views on parenting.
“With Ibrahim, I remember… I think it was Pataudi and they were doing the Christmas tree and I was trying to be perfect and trying to put it in the right way. And Ibrahim was putting it all over the place. So Saif said, ‘Do you mind? It has to be participative’. I also learnt that you don’t have to be perfect but allow the children to grow at their own pace. And he has been really wonderful,” she said.
Sharmila added that Saif continues to share a warm and honest bond with his younger sons Taimur and Jeh, from his second wife Kareena Kapoor Khan. “Even with Taimur and Jeh, he's a lot of fun. Even during his accident, he was very real with them,” she said.
The conversation also touched upon Sara Ali Khan’s upbringing following Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh’s separation when she was nine. Sara was raised primarily by her mother but has remained close to her father.
Speaking about the traits she inherited from both parents, Sara said, “On a bad day, you don’t want to ask Abba or Amma because they are like, ‘You are like your father’ or ‘You are like your mother’. And I am like, ‘Guys, this is bound to happen, you studied DNA right? Yes, I am like my mom and yes, I am like my father’.”
Sara credited her father for her “eclectic likes” and her mother for teaching her to be authentic and unfiltered. “Staying real in a world where it’s difficult to be that way… I think that’s because of mom,” she said.
Asked what she had learned from her grandmother, she said dignity and grace mattered most during adversity.
“I think as a family we have been through quite a lot together, especially earlier this year with abba (Saif Ali Khan). But I think just holding herself together and not letting that go, I think that’s something,” she said, adding, “I think Badi Amma has always been very dignified and that’s what I aspire to be able to inculcate in life.”