In July last year, when the whole nepotism debate was raging, Saif Ali Khan wrote an open letter, where he used the word ‘eugenics’ to defend why nepotism is not bad and star kids are like race horses.
“Eugenics means well born and in a movie context, the genes (the DNA we’re born with, not the blue trousers we wear) of, let’s say Dharmendra’s son or Amitabh Bachchan’s son or for that matter, Sharmila Tagore’s son come into play. Because people are interested in what their children will be like and whether they will have the genes of their parents, in terms of their talent. If you need another example, then take race horses. We take a derby winner, mate him with the right mate and see if we can create another grand national winner. So, in that sense, this is the relationship between genetics and star kids,” he wrote.
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And now, less than six months later, Saif has repeated a similar statement, bringing his son Taimur Ali Khan’s name to the genetics debate. Taimur, who recently turned one, is now being referred to as a treasure trove possessing poet Rabindranath Tagore’s and Raj Kapoor’s DNA, owing to his pedigree. With Saif and Kareena themselves being products of nepotism, does it really surprise us that they continue subscribing to those beliefs, an elitist outlook on an industry that is so wary of those who have no ‘eugenics’ in them?
During an episode of online streaming service Saavn’s upcoming show Take 2 with Anupama and Rajeev, Saif said that his young son his ‘blue-eyed boy’, literally and figuratively. “He is a genetic treasure trove, he is. He has got a bit of Rabindranath Tagore, he is a bit of Raj Kapoor, a bit of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, little bit of Bhopal. It’s beyond me,” he said.