The publishers had given you a carte blanche. What made you decide to tell your own story in The Perils of Being Moderately Famous?

I have a better memory than imagination. Even to make something up takes a certain amount of skill and creativity, which can wait for a later book. At this point, I thought people would be interested to know what it means to be Sharmila Tagore’s daughter, Saif Ali Khan’s sister, Kareena Kapoor’s sister-in-law and grow up as a nawabzadi. I thought let me talk about that in a humorous way.

While writing the book how did you discipline yourself, given that unlike on a film set, you were on your own?

You are right. A film is teamwork. Writing is a solitary journey. That can be both exciting and scary. But given the content of the book and the way I have written it, it became a conversation with myself or my laptop. Initially I struggled with the idea. But the more I wrote the more I enjoyed it. There is more of a sense of ownership than in a film. This is like my second baby.

Technically, this is your first, given that it ended with your pregnancy test and came out first.

Hahaha! Yes, this is the first. For me, even to say this much was a big deal. I am quite reserved. I can talk on a humorous level about things but it takes a lot out of me to say how I feel emotionally. But I certainly have a lot more to say. 

The reserved part of you comes through in the disclaimer in the introduction that this book is no source of gossip.

Absolutely. I am used to being asked questions not meant for me but for other members of my family. And since I am the only one on social media, I get such queries. So when it comes to questions on others’ lives, I am very guarded.

You have written on how journalists try to coax information on Saifeena (Saif + Kareena) out of you at every opportunity…

Yes, such ingenious ways! Even after the book’s Mumbai launch, a journalist said: “Yeh sab toh thik hai, lekin where are you celebrating Taimur’s birthday?” That was a fitting note to end the press conference! 

The trivia in the book is fit for a quiz. Who knew Soha Ali Khan has acted in an Uttam Kumar film! 

Yes. I was a newborn baby in my mother’s arm in Dooriyan. It was my debut. My grandmother had a huge crush on Uttam Kumar. When my mother was working with him, she (grandma) would just sit and stare at him. Uttam Kumar would get uncomfortable and walk away. 

You also did a Doordarshan documentary with your father.

Yes, it was with various athletes called Spread the Light of Freedom. There was P.T. Usha, Prakash Padukone… they came to my father as well to run with the torch. I was at home and must have wanted to run along. We ran from one end of our garden to the other. Though all we had was a blurry image, I said that picture has to be in the book.

An acquaintance had been to your Delhi house to meet your father and was offering his own pen to sign something when Nawabsaab quietly gestured and a pen arrived on a silver tray. And when we last met, you had mentioned that Saif dresses for dinner at home. Do you foresee Taimur and Inaya inheriting this way of life?

So much change happens over generations. My father saw a lot — from being born in a pre-Independence era to seeing the abolition of princely states and privy purses in 1971, being the Nawab of Pataudi to becoming Mr Khan, losing a three-acre house in central Delhi and settling in a more modest bungalow in Vasant Vihar, losing his eye…. He always took change in his stride. We are lucky to still have Pataudi. Taimur and Inaya will see a bit of that life when they go there but life for them will be different, just as life for me was different from that of my father or grandfather. One should know about one’s roots. That’s why it was important for me to write the book, to write how life was for my grandmother. I want Inaya to read it. 

What does your daughter’s name, Inaya Naumi, mean? 

Inaya is grace of god, serenity. And Naumi because she was born on Navami, the ninth day of Navratri. It’s a good day for women.

So it wasn’t as if Mummy and Papa had a name each and both were used?

No (laughs aloud). We had long decided on Inaya if we had a girl. Naumi was added when we knew the day (of birth). In the passport you take the father’s name. So it becomes Inaya Naumi Kunal Kemmu. 

What about your passport name?

I haven’t changed it. It was always Soha Sultana. In our family, all the women are called Sultana. 

How tough is it to leave a three-and-a-half-month-old at home?

It is the first time that I have left Mumbai after she’s been born. I am nervous. But I know it’s only me. For her, it’s out of sight, out of mind. She smiles when she sees me. I think when I leave the room she forgets about me. She’s too small.

Who does she look like? 

A lot of people say she looks like Taimur. But I feel Taimur looks more like the Kapoors. I think it’s because at the moment she has light eyes. The shape of the face is the same and they have similar hair. But every day she keeps changing. I feel she has my chin, my shape of eye; the eye colour is from Kunal’s grandfather. They are Kashmiri. He has light eyes. She is still coming into her own when she would look like Inaya. 

You have written how random people pass comments on Twitter, sometimes abusive ones. Have you ever considered quitting?

I loooove Twitter. I love random discussions with random people. I have more discussions with them than with my friends. These are your audience, your readers, your fellow citizens. You can’t shut everyone out and think there are just my friends and my way of thinking. It is important to be uncomfortable at times. It would take a lot for me to leave Twitter. I believe so much in freedom of speech, as long as there is no threat of violence. 

You wrote how devastated you were by a review of Dil Maange More… 

That was one reviewer (who wrote “Soha looks like her mother but acts like her father”). It was not a good performance. It’s all right to sometimes not do well in things and have failures in life. I did think acting was going to be easy and learnt very quickly it was not. Criticism does not bother me and humour is important. To be able to laugh at a joke at one’s expense is a sign of security. 

Your father’s reaction to the review was quite funny!

Yes, he was genuinely puzzled (laughs). He felt he was good in the ads he had done for Gwalior Suitings. So he was not sure if it was an insult or a veiled compliment. 

You binge-watched Sex and the City after the negative reviews to Dil Maange More. Are you a binge-watcher?

I love binge-watching — getting into my pyjamas, not getting out of home for two days. These days they make stuff for binge-watching. Recently I saw The Crown Season 2. Then I saw Mindhunter, which is on serial killing.

LEAFING THROUGH

The last book you read: I always have a book in my bag. I am reading an old one now. (Takes it out) True Tales of Tragedy and Terror, dated 1963. It has everything from the Black (Hole) deaths of Calcutta to Pearl Harbor. I have stolen it from the Pataudi library. 

Favourite authors: Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie, Helen Fielding for Bridget Jones’s Diary, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 

 

A book you can return to again and again: I love The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I can return to P.G. Wodehouse any time. 

Most quotable author: Oscar Wilde. And Shakespeare. I was reading a poster on all the things he has written that have passed into our vocabulary. 

Your favourite film adaptation of a book: Adaptations rarely live up to the book, a case in point being The Kite Runner. I liked Shakespeare in Love and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Romeo + Juliet. I like interesting contemporary adaptations of older books.

Your favourite medium for reading: I can’t read on the phone. Kunal got me a Kindle on a birthday. But I don’t like things that have to be charged. You’ve got to carry the charger. It’s frustrating. Even though I know you can carry 3,000 books on Kindle I still carry a hard copy. I like owning a book, taking it down from the shelf. Just as I like writing on paper. I can’t function without a diary. If it’s in the diary, I have to do it. 

 

Any author you’d like to read to Inaya? We are already reading Goodnight Moon, Brown Bear, Ten Little Fingers…I have got pictures of her holding her own little book. I grew up reading Enid Blyton. My mother got some old books from Pataudi, The Faraway Tree and other stories. 

The most well-read in the family: Everyone loves to read. My mother, my brother…. My brother loves to read books on history, military history, Napoleonic wars. 

The most well-read in the industry: Umm… I know Aamir (Khan) is often seen holding a book. So he must be reading them? Presumably (laughs).