Pataudis spend the weekend with Julia Roberts

MUMBAI - The entire Pataudi clan, former cricketer Tiger, his actress wife Sharmila Tagore and their three children, including star son Saif Ali Khan, were at Pataudi, Haryana, over the weekend sharing their ancestral home with Hollywood’s Pretty Woman Julia Roberts.

While Roberts, the first Hollywood celebrity to stay in Pataudi House that has now been converted to a heritage hotel, is at the Nafeez Manzil, the Pataudi family was at the main palace.

“Julia Roberts is our guest. She’s staying in a part of our property. We’ve let the unit stay in a flank because she’s a colleague and I know what it is like to shoot far away from home,” Sharmila told IANS over the phone from Pataudi Sunday.

“We’re staying in the main palace. They are staying in a separate part of the royal property known as the Nafeez Manzil. In the past, Aamir Khan shot and stayed with us for ‘The Rising’. Deepa Mehta shot ‘Earth’ in Pataudi though that portion was edited out,” said Sharmila.

Sharmila says she came to her ancestral house, a short distance from the national capital, with her entire family for a family function.

“Tiger and I are here. He dragged us out here in this heat, much to our annoyance. Saif and my two daughters Sabah and Soha are also here for a Mewati Akikah ceremony which is a traditional Muslim mundan (head shaving),” said Sharmila, who is very angry at the way her son is referred to as the ‘Chote Nawab’ in the media.

“Saif is a grown-up man of 36. There’s no Chote or Nawab in his personality. He wants to be known as an actor, though he comes from a royal family,” she said.

Pataudi Palace belongs to Sharmila’s husband, the erstwhile prince of Pataudi and former India cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.

Roberts, who is here to shoot the India part of her movie “Eat, Pray, Love”, landed in New Delhi Sep 17. She has been shooting scenes with her Hollywood colleagues Billy Crudup, Javier Bardem and Richard Jenkins at the Ashram Hari Mandir in Pataudi, about 40 km from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Directed by Ryan Murphy, the movie is based on Pushcart prize-winning author Elizabeth Gilbert’s spirituality-travel memoirs, “Eat, Love, Pray”, and features Roberts as Gilbert who travels to Italy, India and Indonesia in search of peace.

The 41-year-old will be in Pataudi till Oct 9 and is expected to leave for Bali thereafter.