‘Wasn’t very easy…’: Sharmila Tagore TALKS about her journey of converting to Islam

Sharmila Tagore was indubitably one of many main actresses of her time. She began her profession in 1959 with the film Apur Sansar. Over the subsequent few years, she regarded in diversified motion photos, many of which grew to turn out to be hits. At some stage in her profession, Sharmila met the neatly-known cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. The duo fell in take care of and determined to take dangle of their relationship additional by tying the knot. In 1968, Sharmila married Mansoor in an interfaith marriage, a union that was rare on the time.

After her wedding ceremony, Sharmila moreover reworked to Islam and adopted the title Ayesha. Now now not too long in the past, a throwback interview of Tagore has been making the rounds on the get, where the extinct actress talks about her stir of converting to Islam. She acknowledged, “It wasn’t easy, nor was it very refined. It needed to be confronted and understood. You couldn’t be very flippant about it. Now, I safe I do know more about Hinduism and Islam.”

Within the identical interview, Sharmila moreover shared her experience of assembly her mother-in-law, Nawab Begum Sajida Sultan of Bhopal. “The first time I met Amma, I was, of course, very fearful. She requested, ‘What stop you take into tale my son?’ I acknowledged, ‘I take care of him.’ She then requested, ‘What stop you blueprint to stop?’ I answered, ‘I don’t know but; I lovely met him. I'm very all for him, and at this point, you safe identified him for longer,'” she recalled.

Over time, the bond between Sharmila and her mother-in-law grew stronger, with a “very healthy mutual recognize.”

Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore were married for 43 years except the legendary cricketer passed away in 2011. The couple was blessed with three teenagers: Saif Ali Khan, Saba Ali Khan, and Soha Ali Khan.