{"id":88133,"date":"2025-09-27T04:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T04:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/88133\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T04:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T04:33:08","slug":"saif-ali-khan-reveals-being-paid-%e2%82%b91000-per-week-with-a-strange-condition-in-his-early-bollywood-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/88133\/","title":{"rendered":"Saif Ali Khan reveals being paid \u20b91,000 per week with a strange condition in his early Bollywood years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before he became a critically acclaimed actor by choice, Saif Ali Khan<\/a> endured an early Bollywood journey that was anything but regal. In a candid conversation with <\/a>Esquire India, the actor peeled back the layers of stardom to reveal a time when he was paid just \u20b91,000 a week, but with a bizarre catch.<\/p>\n

\"Bollywood Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan says that despite his privileged background, his journey included many second roles and challenging films before finding success in the early 2000s with notable films.(AFP) Saif talks about his early years in Bollywood<\/p>\n

At just 21, Saif married Amrita Singh, and by 25, he was a father. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he had real financial responsibilities from the start.<\/p>\n

He recounts a time he was paid one thousand rupees a week by a producer who demanded he kiss her cheek ten times each time she handed him the money.<\/p>\n

Though born into privilege, son of cricket legend Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and veteran star Sharmila Tagore, Saif admits his entry into films was far from smooth. People assumed his path was easy, he says, but the reality was full of second roles and forgettable films.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019d done second lead, third lead… There were a couple of films that were decent, that kept one afloat. But then there came a time when, you know, one after another, they were very bad,” Saif said.<\/p>\n

Saif describes the 1990s as his “net practice” era, a decade of trial, error, and learning on the job. He recently rewatched every film from the first two decades of his career, one a night on YouTube, in an effort to reflect on how far he\u2019s come. The exercise was both humbling and therapeutic, forcing him to confront the unevenness of his early filmography.<\/p>\n

“People would say, you\u2019re lucky you\u2019ve got so many chances. But it wasn\u2019t that I was getting the best movies in town and being cast as the main lead,\u201d Saif said.<\/p>\n

The early 2000s marked a turning point. Films like Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega and Dil Chahta Hai helped Saif break out of the generic romantic-hero mould. His dark, award-winning role in Omkara (2006) showed audiences, and perhaps himself, that he could dive into complex, layered characters.<\/p>\n

Saif’s latest work<\/p>\n

Saif Ali Khan was last seen alongside Jaideep Ahlawat in Jewel Thief: The Heist Begins, a high-octane action thriller that premiered on Netflix, directed by Kookie Gulati and Robbie Grewal. Up next, he\u2019s set to star in Priyadarshan\u2019s Haiwaan, which also marks a reunion with Akshay Kumar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before he became a critically acclaimed actor by choice, Saif Ali Khan endured an early Bollywood journey that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,57848,57847,18,117,19,17,57849,52161,2146],"class_list":{"0":"post-88133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-critically-acclaimed-actor","10":"tag-early-bollywood-journey","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-netflix-thriller","16":"tag-omkara","17":"tag-saif-ali-khan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}