Indian actor Saif Ali Khan paid emotional tribute to his late father and cricket legend Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.
The 55-year-old spoke about his late father, who was also known as Tiger Pataudi, at the Tiger Pataudi Memorial Lecture 2026 in Kolkata.
The event was hosted by The Bengal Club with The Telegraph.
Legendary English cricketer Sir Ian Botham was one of the attendees as the event.
The Kal Ho Na Ho star described his father as “a man of very few words who somehow said everything that mattered”.
Saif also mentioned the late star’s passion for cricket which made him not care about his eye injury and focus on cricket.
“I never heard him describe the loss as an adversity. To him, it was simply a fact. Something to adjust to. Something to work harder around.” he said.
Speaking of his father’s contribution to Indian cricket, he said “He believed in instilling self-belief in Indian players who had never before been told they could dominate world cricket.”
Mansoor was appointed as the captain of the Indian team at the age of 21. After the death of his father, Iftikhar Ali Pataudi, in 1952, he succeeded him as the Nawab of Pataudi.
At the age of 70, on September 22, 2011, he passed away due to respiratory failure in Delhi.
