Farah Khan’s Father ‘Died Penniless With Rs 30 In His Pocket’: ‘He Would Get Angry, Take Out His Gun…’

Farah Khan is regarded as one of the most successful directors and choreographers in Bollywood. Farah Khan is famous for her humorous nature but life was never a bed of roses for her. Due to financial constraints, she had to spend six years in a storeroom with her family. There was even a time when the filmmaker did not have the money for the last rites of her father, Kamran Khan.

“I could make a tragedy out of my childhood, my trauma, and my parents splitting up. My father literally died penniless with just Rs 30 in his pocket. You can get bitter and angry with the world, but I choose to remember the happy times,” Farah shared in an old interview with Simi Garewal. “We remember that time with a lot of laughter. Sajid and I tell funny stories about how sometimes my father would get really angry, take out his gun, and everyone would run for cover. It has all become a funny story now, which I think is a nicer way to remember it,” she said.

After Kamran’s film Aisa Bhi Hota Hai failed at the box office, Farah Khan’s changed forever. In an old interview with Karan Thapar on Itvindia, Farah recalled, “The film released on Friday and by Sunday we were below the poverty line. It was pretty bad and I was six years old at the time. I was a spoiled brat before that and would get whatever I wanted and then suddenly everything changed.”

“Only the house remained, and everything else went,” she said, adding, “The cars, my mom’s jewellery, the gramophone—everything. Finally, we were left with an empty house, two sofas, and a fan. We even rented out the drawing room for a few hours. People would come, organize a kitty party, play cards in the room, give us some money in return, and leave. That’s how the house was running for a couple of years.”

Farah’s mother, Menaka Irani, then left her father. Farah began working at the age of 15 and earned pocket money. “I started supporting myself with the money I earned, and I’ve been working ever since,” she shared.