Sharmila Tagore says she was an ‘absent’ mother in Saif Ali Khan’s growing up years: ‘Made few mistakes’

Sharmila Tagore said, “When I had Saif, I was very busy. I was working two shifts a day and for the first six years of his life, I was really absent. I did whatever I had to do/I went for the parent teachers meeting, attended his plays but I don’t think I was a full-time mom. My husband was there, but I wasn’t. Then when I became a mother, I became an overzealous mother. I wanted to feed him, bathe him and everything. That was the other side of the pendulum. I made a few mistakes, honestly.”

“But he has grown up pretty ok. My husband was there, and we had the support of the extended family and my friends. One of his schoolteachers would live across the apartment in Mumbai. She and her husband really looked after Saif as well… For the girls I was there,” she added.

Decades ago, Sharmila Tagore had appeared on the show Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai, where she was also joined by her daughters Soha Ali Khan and Saba Ali Khan. On the episode, the veteran actor had said when Saif Ali Khan was born, she was working “non-stop”, which reduced by the time she had her daughters.

“I was doing two-shifts in a day and sometimes I would not see him three-four days in a row. But by the time my daughters were born, I wasn’t working that much, so there wasn’t any filmy atmosphere at home.”

On the show, Soha Ali Khan had recalled how they never saw the “film side” of their mother. Soha had said she was unfamiliar with her mother waking up early morning for shoots, while Saba recalled the one set memory with her mother. “We were taken aback to see her cry profusely. She told us that was glycerin! That’s when we realised that there is something like fake crying as well! That she was ok, there was nothing wrong with Amma,” she had recalled.