Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan has spoken out publicly for the first time about the night he was stabbed during a violent home invasion earlier this year, recalling the moment his son asked if he was going to die.
The incident took place in the early hours of 16 January in the family’s apartment in the upscale Bandra neighbourhood of Mumbai, capital of the western peninsular state of Maharashtra, where Khan got into a physical altercation with a home intruder who stabbed the actor multiple times.
Son of cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and actor Sharmila Tagore, Khan is the scion of the erstwhile rulers of the former princely state of Pataudi in the state of Haryana. Since his Bollywood debut in 1993, he has starred in over 60 films, including the critically acclaimed Omkara, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello.
Khan is married to actor Kareena Kapoor Khan and has two sons with her, Taimur, 9, and Jeh, 4.
Hospitals and police said Saif sustained six stab wounds, including two deep wounds and one near his spine, and was taken to Lilavati Hospital for emergency surgery. Doctors later said he was out of danger and on the road to recovery.
In a talk show appearance, Khan, 55, opened up about how the attack unfolded, saying that it happened shortly after 2am, after the household had gone to sleep.
“Kareena had been out (the previous night), and I had just finished watching a movie with the boys. So, we went to sleep quite late, around two in the morning. After Kareena returned, we had a small chat before we turned in,” he told hosts Kajol and Twinkle Khanna on Two Much.
“Then, the maid came in and she said, ‘Jeh baba ke kamre mein koi hai. Uske haath mein chaaku hai aur bol rahe hai usko paisa chahiye’ (There’s someone in Jeh’s room. He has a knife in his hand, and he says he wants money),” he continued.
“I kind of heard that and rolled out of bed. I barged into Jeh’s room in the dark and saw this guy standing over his bed with a knife.”
Saif confirmed that his son’s nanny and his son had been nicked by the intruder on their hands, and the man had been “poking the knife at them”.
“I thought he was smaller than me, which means he’s not very large. And I jumped on him. Jeh later told me, ‘It was a big mistake. You should have punched or kicked him instead.’
“But I jumped and we started this fight. He went mad. He had two knives and he started slashing all over me. I tried to remember my training and blocked a couple of them. But then I felt a thump in my back that was really hard. And then we started fighting and rolling, and then by then, everyone was out of their rooms.”
Khan said their domestic worker jumped into the fray at this point and pulled the man off Khan, which likely prevented further injuries.
“Gita, our help, she helped me in this struggle and pushed the guy off me, and pretty much saved my life at that point, because he had cut me everywhere. Then we locked him in a room.”
Khan recalled thinking he needed a “weapon of some sort” and went to grab two swords hanging on the wall. But at this point, he realised he wasn’t able to walk very well because of the stab wound in his leg.
“But actually, I’d been nicked in the spine,” he explained. At this point, Khan said his wife intervened and said the actor needed to go to the hospital immediately.
Lilavati hospital had confirmed at the time that Khan had sustained six wounds: two cuts which were primarily on his back, with one near the spine, were deep, in addition to another minor wound on his neck and other superficial injuries.
A piece of the knife had lodged into his spine, the doctors said, which led to some spinal fluid leaking.
Meanwhile, the intruder escaped “the way he came”, climbing down a drain pipe.
Khan said his son Taimur then looked at him and asked: “Oh my God! Are you going to die?”
“And I said, ‘No, I don’t think so. But I’ve got a pain in my back. I’m not going to die, I’m fine,’” he said.
Khan corroborated the events that were reported at the time, that he was taken to the hospital via public transport, and Taimur went with him.
“I was getting a lot of peace looking at him. It was weird, there was a lot of adrenaline and a lot of calm,” he said.
The actor then described walking into the hospital, where he found the staff “sleepy in the emergency area”.
“I asked a guy, ‘Can you get a stretcher?’ He asked, ‘Wheelchair?’ And I said, ‘No, I think I am going to need a stretcher.’ But seeing he wasn’t waking up, I said, ‘I am Saif Ali Khan and this is a medical emergency.’ That’s when all pandemonium broke loose,” he said.
While Khan was in recovery, celebrities and politicians shared dismayed and concerned reactions to the incident, questioning the security and level of crime in Mumbai, both the state capital and India’s financial hub.
The subsequent interest in the case led Kareena Kapoor Khan to release a statement asking “the media and paparazzi refrain from the relentless speculation and coverage”.
“While we appreciate the concern and support, the constant scrutiny and attention are not only overwhelming but also pose a significant risk to our safety. I kindly request that you respect our boundaries and give us the space we need to heal and cope as a family,” she wrote.
Saif addressed online scepticism that the episode had been staged after he was seen walking out of hospital, saying he chose to leave on foot because he did not want to cause needless worry.
“When everything was finished, a lot of advice came in, including regarding how to go out. The media were curious. Nobody was listening to me. It was very bad, yes, but I could walk. They had stitched it up. It was painful to walk, but I could. The wheelchair or ambulance was not required.”
Explaining that he didn’t want to cause worry among family or fans, he chose to walk out to send a “picture message that you’re okay”.
The police detained Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad, a suspected Bangladeshi illegal migrant, for the attempted burglary and stabbing. His father told Indian media that Shehzad was not the individual seen in CCTV footage, and only has “some similarities to the suspect”.
In March this year, Shehzad filed a a bail application in Mumbai, saying the accusations against him are “patently false” and he is wrongly accused.
In April last year, two men accused of opening fire outside the home of Bollywood film star Salman Khan were arrested by Mumbai police. At least one of the men captured on CCTV was suspected to work for jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, sources in the Mumbai police told Indian media at the time.
