Soha Ali Khan may have grown up in the midst of cinematic royalty and cricketing legends, but she’s been paving her own way with wit, wisdom, and a quiet strength that echoes her family's legacy.
Daughter of veteran actress Sharmila Tagore and the late, iconic cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (a.k.a. Tiger Pataudi), Soha recently shared a candid and humorous story about her birth, shedding light on societal expectations and gender roles, then and now.
In an interview with News18 Showsha, Soha said, “When I was born, I think my father was screaming in the corridors, ‘We’ll make him a fast bowler.’ But later, when it was discovered that it was a girl, there weren’t many opportunities for girls in cricket, unlike today. Perhaps they would’ve invested in me as a bowler then,” she said, laughing.
Although she never trained formally in cricket, Soha did lean into her sporty instincts with badminton, and always kept physical fitness top of mind, something she’s now passing down to her daughter, Inaaya, alongside husband Kunal Kemmu.
For Soha, fitness isn’t about looks, it’s about independence and self-reliance.
“Often, we want our girls to be good and our boys to be strong. But we want her to be physically strong, so that she doesn’t feel the need for someone else to protect her,” she said.
“Even to the point that if someone makes her feel unsafe, she should feel, ‘I have the strength to fight back.’ Even though we may be physically the weaker sex — and that’s why we become soft targets in so many ways — the idea is to be mentally strong as well.”
She also reflected on how puzzled her daughter would be to learn that a preference for sons still exists in today’s world.
Soha, who made her Bollywood debut in 2004, followed in her mother’s acting footsteps, while also embracing the world of literature with her memoir, The Perils of Being Moderately Famous.
Most recently, she appeared in Chhorii 2, a horror sequel directed by Vishal Furia, co-written with Divya Prakash Dubey and Ajit Jagtap.
Soha Ali Khan remains as graceful as she is grounded and refreshingly unafraid to talk about uncomfortable truths with humor and heart.
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