5 interesting facts about Pataudi Palace, where Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal was shot

If you've watched Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal, you must also have Googled where in Delhi is the lavish bungalow where the movie is primarily shot.

This place is not in Delhi, but Saif Ali Khan’s ancestral property, Pataudi Palace, in Haryana.

Remember Shah Rukh Khan widening his arms and running all over in the title song of Kal Ho Na Ho? It was shot at Pataudi Palace. A major portion of Shah Rukh Khan’s Veer Zaara was also shot at the palace.

Two years ago, the Saif Ali Khan-starrer web series Tandav was also shot inside the palace and after that, we saw it being used in Animal. Not only Tandav, Imran Khan’s Mere Brother Ki Dulhan was also filmed inside the Pataudi Palace.

The mansion is quite a popular location with filmmakers. Here are some lesser-known facts about the 100-year-old Pataudi Palace.

1. Built by Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi

• Valued at Rs 800 crore, the sprawling mansion was built by Saif Ali Khan’s grandfather, Nawab Iftikhar Ali Khan, the 8th Pataudi in 1939, when he married Begum Sajida Sultan of Bhopal.
• Since he didn’t want to welcome her in his existing family estate, he built the Pataudi Palace with the help of two foreign architects who designed the palace.
• Iftikhar Ali Khan died in 1952 and it was then inherited by his son Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.

2. Saif Ali Khan didn’t inherit it, but earned it

• Though Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan is the last Nawab and owner of the property, fact is that he had to earn it back from Neemrana Hotels, to whom it was leased out from 2005 to 2014. The palace was was converted into Pataudi Palace Hotel.
• Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi died in 2011.  
• It didn’t belong to the Pataudi family until Saif Ali Khan took it back from the hotel owners.
• The actor had to pay a hefty sum to the hotel owners, which he earned through films. 
• “The house that I’m supposed to inherit has been earned back through money from films. You can’t live off the past. It has been a privileged upbringing, but there has been no inheritance,” Saif Ali Khan once said.
• It was after the death of one of the founders of Neemrana that Saif took it back, in 2015.

3. Designed by British architects

• The palace was designed by British architect Robert Tor Russell in the early 1900s, along with the help from another Austrian architect, Karl Moltz von Heinz.
• The two architechts tried to model the palace on the colonial mansions of Imperial Delhi.
• When Saif Ali Khan took the possession back, he hired interior architect  Darshini Shah to refurbish the palace.

4. 150 rooms in the Rs 800 crore property

• The Pataudi Palace is spread out across 10 acres of land in the Gurugram district of Haryana.
• There are at least 150 rooms, 7 living rooms, 7 dressing rooms, 7 billiards rooms along with several living rooms.
• The dining rooms and living rooms are connected by long hallways, which we see in the movies shot there.

5. Saif Ali Khan’s go-to destination

• The Pataudi Palace is Saif and Kareena's go-to place for family outings in India.
• From celebrating Taimur Ali Khan’s birthday to celebrating Kareena’s 39th birthday, and other Christmas celebrations, the Pataudi Palace is the perfect getaway for the Nawab family.