Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com
After a frightening encounter with an intruder in his own home, Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan has finally spoken out. In an interview with the Indian publication Bombay Times, he shared the chilling details of that night, his incredible survival, and the doubts expressed by the public afterward.
It was meant to be just another ordinary night. Kareena Kapoor had stepped out for dinner, leaving Saif at home to get ready for work the next day. Around 2 a.m., their househelp burst in with urgent news—an intruder had entered their son Jeh’s room, brandishing a knife and demanding money.
“I saw this masked man standing over Jeh’s bed, holding what I first thought were two sticks. It turned out to be a hexa blade—knives in both hands,” he remembered. “Something just took over me, and I grabbed him.”
A fierce struggle broke out. Saif wrestled the man to the ground while the intruder kept striking him in the back. At first, the actor didn’t realize he was being stabbed. “It felt like thuds. I thought he was just punching me. The adrenaline and shock were overwhelming,” he said. But when the assailant slashed at his neck, Saif instinctively raised his hands to block, suffering deep cuts on his palm, wrist, and arm.
Geeta, the househelp, quickly pulled the attacker away from Saif and pushed him aside. They both managed to escape and lock the door behind them. It was only then that Saif realized how badly he was injured.
“I was covered in blood. My right leg felt numb. I thought I had been stabbed in the leg, but later, I realised a knife had nicked my spine,” he shared.
Meanwhile, Kareena quickly moved Jeh to safety, taking him to Taimur’s room. Saif, despite his injuries, was determined to find a weapon to protect his family.
The intruder, however, managed to slip away the same way he had come in—climbing up a drainpipe and squeezing through a window into the children’s bathroom.
Saif and his househelp quickly grabbed decorative swords from the wall, ready to face the intruder. That’s when Kareena stepped in. “She said, ‘We need to get out. You have to go to the hospital, and I need to take Jeh somewhere safe,'” Saif recalled.
With no driver available at that late hour, Kareena desperately searched for a cab or a rickshaw. “I told her, ‘I’m fine. I’m not going to die.’ Even Taimur asked me, ‘Are you going to die?’ I assured him.”
Taimur was adamant about going with his father. “He was calm. He wanted to be with me, and I didn’t want to face it alone,” Saif recounted.
Eventually, a rickshaw driver agreed to take them to Lilavati Hospital. “He saw the blood but didn’t panic. Maybe because of the kid, he gave the whole thing some respectability,” he mentioned.
When they arrived, Saif entered the emergency room, bloodied, with Taimur at his side. “The doctors took a moment to grasp what was going on. When I told them who I was, there was a moment of disbelief, and then chaos ensued,” he remembered.
Despite his injuries, Saif stayed clear-headed. “They offered me a wheelchair, but I turned it down. I requested a stretcher instead,” he explained.
A spinal neurosurgeon was called in urgently. The MRI showed that a three-to-four-inch blade had penetrated behind Saif’s shoulder blade, coming alarmingly close to his spinal cord. “The knife had broken off inside. It was just one millimeter away from causing paralysis,” he explained.
The surgery took six hours, with 2.5 hours spent just on repairing his spine. “I lost spinal fluid, and even now, there’s numbness in my thigh,” he confessed.
Despite the seriousness of his injuries, Saif’s recovery was surprisingly smooth, which sparked a lot of skepticism on social media.
“People were questioning how I could walk out of the hospital so casually. But close is close—you’re either paralyzed or you’re not,” he explained.
“Sure, I have stitches—25 here, 30 there. The cuts on my palm could have severed an artery, but they didn’t. It’s a miracle my hands are still working. I really don’t know how he missed my carotid and jugular—it’s hard to believe someone could cut my neck the way it was and not kill me.”
Some people also wondered about the delay in reaching the hospital. “There was no delay. The first rickshaw we took went directly to Lilavati. Others asked why we didn’t have a driver at home. But our drivers usually leave at night unless we specifically ask them to stay,” he clarified.
Despite the experience, Saif is determined not to let fear control his life. “I feel very safe in Mumbai. This wasn’t an attack on me; it was a burglary attempt that went wrong. The police have done an excellent job,” he stated.
Regarding security measures, he stands by his choice. “Some have suggested getting a gun, but I don’t believe in that. My father kept a shotgun by his bed, but I think accidents happen with guns. I used to have one, but I got rid of it.”
The family has united in the wake of recent events. “Jeh handed me a plastic sword and told me, ‘Keep this by your bed for the next time the chor comes.’
He says, ‘Geeta saved Abba, and Abba saved me.’ Taimur is more focused on security. Sara and Ibrahim were quite emotional,” he shared.
Kareena has also been a source of strength. “She’s doing well. Of course, she’s shaken and worried about security, but she’s managed it admirably.”
Even Sharmila Tagore, Saif’s mother, took charge in her own way. “She was very supportive about Taimur being there. She understood the protective instinct of a parent. At the hospital, she made sure that everyone, including the doctors, wore masks to avoid infections. And she held my hand and sang me a lullaby,” he said with a smile.
Looking back on the incident, Saif acknowledged that he would approach things differently if he had the chance.
“I’d turn on the lights and ask him, ‘Do you know who I am?’ Maybe then he’d realize he was in the wrong house,” he chuckled.
He doesn’t harbor any resentment towards his attacker. “Taimur mentioned that he should be forgiven because he was hungry. I might have felt the same—until the knife was involved. That’s where my compassion stops.”
Regardless of the circumstances, he is determined not to let this night shape his identity. “This isn’t a Monica Seles moment. My life isn’t taking a turn. It was just a mistake—a burglary attempt that went horribly wrong. And to be honest, that poor guy’s life is more screwed than mine,” Saif concluded.
