Soha Ali Khan’s birth had father Tiger Pataudi wishing he could have a ‘fast bowler’ son: ‘Before they discovered I was a girl, he said…’ | Bollywood News
Soha Ali Khan, daughter of veteran actor Sharmila Tagore and legendary cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan (Tiger) Pataudi, was born in luxury. In a recent interview, Soha shared an anecdote from the time she was born and said that her father’s instant reaction to her birth, when he didn’t know it was a girl, was to “make him a fast bowler,” sugegsting that perhaps, he wanted a boy to carry his family cricket lineage.
In a chat with Her Circle’s Instagram handle Soha shared, “When I was born, and before they discovered I was a girl, so in that fraction of a moment, my father was saying, ‘We will make him a fast bowler’ and then he was told, it’s a girl and then he was like oh okay.”
Soha also opened up about why she never considered pursuing cricket professionally, despite her family’s legacy. “Because, I think, in those days, being a female cricketer was not really one of the options you even considered. Today, of course, it’s very different. You have women’s IPL, women’s national cricket team. People like Mithali Raj and the current team are really influential and doing well for themselves. But when I was born, women’s cricket was not even a thing. Even in school, there was only men’s cricket team. Women were playing volleyball, basketball, tennis and all the other sports,” she said.
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She was quick to clarify, however, that her passion for sports remains strong. “But I’m a very good sportsperson and I’m very good at racquet sports and I’m always looking for people to play badminton well.” In another recent interview with Hauterfly, Soha spoke candidly about her parents’ relationship and the unique family dynamic she grew up with. She shared that despite her father’s arocratic roots, he held progressive views, especially when it came to gender roles in marriage.
Also Read | Before live-in, Sharmila Tagore cautioned Soha Ali Khan that Kunal Kemmu might delay marriage: ‘He might not feel the incentive to propose’
“It was very normal for us, because how can you compare your childhood to anyone else’s. Of course, my father was a professional athlete. He worked a lot, he captained India for close to 10 years, and then he retired. I was born after that. For me, he was always a stay-at-home dad. Also, he was from a royal family, so he didn’t really have a job or an income,” she said.
