It’s not often that
Sohail Khan sits down for a heart-to-heart. In a rare conversation, the actor-producer who owns a team at World Padel League, opens up about his hiatus from acting, the unshakeable bond of family, his sons Nirvan and Yohan, and—perhaps for the first time—co-parenting with his ex-wife, Seema Sajdeh. Excerpts of the interview as followed...
'I was not very happy with the work I was getting as an actor'It’s been a while since audiences saw Sohail in front of the camera. While he was seen in the Telugu film
Arjun Son Of Vyjayanthi earlier this year, his last Hindi release was a cameo in 2019 in Dabangg 3. “I was not very happy with the work I was getting as an actor. I got some work in the South but unfortunately, that film was lukewarm. I didn’t get that kind of response (that I anticipated)," he tells us. Yet, he insists there’s no bitterness on not getting good work. “No, it’s fine. I’ve never been demoralized. It’s life. I appreciate good work. I see good work. I don’t criticize. Everyone tries their best and everyone wants to make a Sholay but, at times they don’t get the appropriate actors or technicians to do their work. I’m just glad that I’m in a position where I can choose what I want, and what I don’t want. Very few people have that position. Sometimes we say, ‘Why is he doing some rubbish work?’ And I go, ‘Thank God, at least I’m not in that position.’ I’m a little financially set up, well off, and I don’t have to do that (rubbish work). And when good work comes my way, which I think I will be able to do justice to, I’ll do it," he adds.
'You learn a lot from your kids'Sohail, 55, is a father to a 24-year-old Nirvan. Fatherhood, for Sohail, has been as much about learning as it has been about guiding. He says his teenage boys keep him on his toes. “I think you learn a lot from them. After 40, one slows down and they (the kids) speed up, so you gotta catch up to them. I’m fortunate that I’ve got two beautiful boys that I live with and they are extremely respectful. We have a big family. They’ve always been protected. You should respect them and learn from them. There’s a lot to learn from them too," he shares.
Sohail Khan Seema Sajdeh
'Things didn’t work out between Seema and I'Sohail, who separated from his wife Seema Sajdeh in 2022, co-parents the kids with
The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives star. This is perhaps the most open Sohail has ever been about his equation with his ex-wife. Talking about co-parenting with Seema, he shares, “I have lived 24 years with Seema. She is a beautiful girl, and somewhere some things didn’t work out. But that doesn’t change the equation that Seema and I have. She’s a lovely person. She’s a lovely mother, a very caring mother. Things didn’t work out between us, but that doesn’t mean that there should be any kind of bad blood between us. It is always decided that once a year as a family, as parents, we take our kids out for a holiday, and we’ll enjoy ourselves. We will just be individual parents and have a great time."
'When the husband and wife start fighting, it only affects the children'He further adds, "When the husband and wife start fighting, it only affects the children. The ego that the husband and wife have, they don’t realize that it affects the children, and then the children start getting disturbed. So they are spoiling the next generation. They are corrupting the next generation, and just not their lives. Then your children will grow up to be disturbed human beings. That is what me and Seema decided—that we didn’t want that. We wanted Nirvan and Yohan to grow up with single parents and know that there’s nothing wrong with that. Love is more important than anything else.”
'I have a private life'While many in the industry live out their personal journeys on social media, Sohail prefers to keep the lens away from his home. “I have a very private life. I enjoy spending time with my two kids and my aging parents. I am fortunate that I can take care of them. And I only come out when there’s work. Just sharing your personal life to the world, I don’t think that it has any kind of relevance because that’s my life. Those are my experiences. I don’t want to be judged or for people to be influenced. They may be having the same circumstances or they can be having some different circumstances," he elaborates.
'I have never been so happy in my life'A lot has happened in the Maine Pyaar Kiya actor's life in the last two years. Looking back, Sohail believes the recent chapter of his life has been one of strength, clarity, and joy. “I think it just made me a stronger person and I have never been so happy in my life as I’ve been in the past couple of years. I’m enjoying myself, I’m having a good time and I have just decided to spend a lot of time with my loved ones. My work is less, but my love is more," he adds.
'Ultimately Salman does land up in my film'Sohail, who has directed Jai Ho, Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Hello Brother, returns to direction with My Punjabi Nikaah. "I'm directing again. For me, the advantage is that I started my career with production and direction. From November onwards, I'm doing My Punjabi Nikaah and there's Sanjay Dutt and Ayush Sharma in the film," he shares. Will his brother Salman Khan be a part of the movie? "Everybody always says, 'Why don't you have him as a cameo?' And then ultimately he does land up somewhere or the other. Because we always like to have somebody from the family. But in the script level, he's not there," he replies.
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