Saif Ali Khan on Life After The Knife Attack: 'The Concept of Being Paralysed Still Frightens Me’

The beginning of the year was anything but easy for Saif Ali Khan. A break-in at his home left the actor injured, placing him in a situation that could have permanently altered his life. Asked whether surviving a knife attack fundamentally changed him as a person or an artist, Khan says, “No, not really. I think I’ve always been aware of some of these things.”

He draws a parallel to the questions he was asked during the pandemic. “People asked me during COVID, ‘Have you changed? Do you have a different outlook?’ And after this incident as well… no, not really. I can’t say I’ve had some kind of epiphany or that I now suddenly know what’s important,” he says.

What the experience did leave him with, however, is a sharper awareness of how close he came to lasting damage. “I feel incredibly lucky and blessed to have gotten away with it the way I did. It was very close,” he admits. The injury, he explains, narrowly missed his spinal cord. “There was a nick there, and that could have led to paralysis. I had lost feeling in my leg for a while.” That brief brush with immobility lingers. “The concept of being bedridden forever or being paralysed is frightening. It still frightens me,” he says.

Khan doesn’t frame the experience as a transformation, but as gratitude. “I’m appreciative that I’m healthy. That keeps me grateful,” he says, adding that the incident may have “accentuated it slightly” without revealing anything new to him. “I’ve always known every day is a blessing. I’ve always lived a certain way, knowing that it’s a privilege to even go through life the way we do.”

Even ambition, he suggests, exists within that awareness. “My life itself, even though I have aspirations and sometimes fall short or achieve things, is still an incredible privilege. I’m massively lucky anyway,” he says.

With a smile, he adds, “I get the feeling that I have nine lives. Having said that, I might be gone tomorrow.”

Watch the full interview with Saif Ali Khan on our YouTube channel.