7 Bollywood Celebrities Who Belong To Royal Families Of India
While Bollywood celebrities know exactly what it means to live life kingsize, there are some names that belong to real-life royal families. They might not choose to use their formal royal titles but they still carry their family’s extraordinary legacies. You might have known Saif Ali Khan to be from a family of rulers, or nawabs if you will, but did you know, Kiran Rao is also a descendant of a former king?
Here are some Bollywood celebrities that are from the many illustrious royal families of India…
Saif Ali Khan And Kareena Kapoor Khan
Saif Ali Khan
This one shouldn’t really come as a surprise. Saif Ali Khan is not called the ‘Nawab of Bollywood’ for nothing. The actor is the 10th nawab of Pataudi, with his grandfather Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi being the last official nawab of the region. His paternal grandmother, Sajida Sultan, was also the Begum of Bhopal. Khan and his family spend many holidays and birthdays at the palatial home in Pataudi. This also means that the other members of the Ali Khan household who are also in the industry, like Sharmila Tagore, Sara Ali Khan, and Soha Ali Khan, are also royals.
Irrfan Khan
Irrfan Khan
The legendary actor late Irrfan Khan’s real name was Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan. He dropped ‘Sahabzade’ from his name because he was, apparently, embarrassed to be known as a royal in the industry. The actor belonged to a village called Tonk in Rajasthan and his family, reportedly, held a lot of authority over the entire area. His father was a reputed zamindar and his mother belonged to the royal Tonk Hakim family.
Manisha Koirala
Manisha Koirala
Few people know that critically-acclaimed actress Manisha Koirala belonged to the royal family of Nepal. In the past, her father has served as the Minister of Environment in Nepal, and her grandfather and two uncles have all served a term each as the Prime Minister of Nepal.
Kiran Rao
Kiran Rao
Producer, writer, and director Kiran Rao’s grandfather was the Raja of Wanaparthy, leader of the royal family that has roots in the Telangana state. She is also the first cousin to fellow Bollywood celebrity Aditi Rao Hydari who has deep royal connections of her own.
Aditi Rao Hydari
Aditi Rao Hydari
Speaking of whom, the Padmavat actress is the great-granddaughter of Akbar Nazar Ali Hydari, former Prime Minister of Hyderabad State. She is also the grandniece of Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari, the former governor of Assam. Her maternal grandfather is Raja J Rameshwar Rao of the Wanaparthy family (thus the Kiran Rao connection). Even though her parents separated from each other when she was a child, the actress chose to keep both the surnames to honour both her parents’ lineage.
Moon Moon Sen
Riya and Raima Sen
The sisters already come from a lineage of Bollywood royalty, with their mother benign actress Moon Moon Sen and their grandmother being Suchitra Sen. But, as it turns out, they are also a part of one of the more prominent royal families of the country. Their paternal great-grandmother Indira was the only daughter of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda. Their paternal grandmother Ila Devi was a princess of Cooch Behar along with her sister, the iconic Gayatri Devi. Their father Bharat Dev Sharma also belongs to the aristocratic family of Tripura!
Bhagyashree
Bhagyashree
The Maine Pyar Kiya actress is the eldest daughter of Raja Vijay Singhrao Madhavrao Patwardhan, the ruler of Sangli, Maharashtra. Bhagyashree had revealed in an interview that it always felt weird when people older than her would touch her feet out of reverence for the royal family, but she also shared that she used to have an elephant as a pet when she was a child so it seems pretty balanced out, if you ask us!
