Launched online in 2018, the brand is now establishing its retail presence while expanding into categories such as perfumes, footwear and home décor
Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan
At one point, when Saif Ali Khan was hospitalised because of his lifestyle and work-related stress, his father, the late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi—one of the most successful captains of Indian cricket—told him: “You need a new high.” That conversation is etched in Khan’s mind. “He told me, try making money. And investing it. It’s a really constructive thing to do. And make that your kind of drug,” recalls the 52-year-old.
That explains why Khan did not want to bet on having a retail presence till he had made enough money with his venture. The actor launched his ethnic-fashion brand, House of Pataudi, in 2018, but it wasn’t until August this year that he opened its first physical store—a 1,500 sq ft outlet at Phoenix Marketcity in Bengaluru—followed by another in Goa.
“It started very small, we literally dipped our toe in the water, and then slowly got a little more comfortable understanding what people expect, and making clear what we were offering. Therefore, it has taken four years for us to come to a position before we thought, okay, it's now time… it was always our ambition to have an offline store,” says Khan, who has acted in over 70 films since making his Bollywood debut in 1993. “You need to be at a certain point and have the money to open a store rather than gamble on opening one. Having gained a satisfying level of success in the online space, we ventured into the offline space.”
On a cloudy, but humid August afternoon, we are sitting in a small, open terrace lined up with plants connected to Khan’s top-floor apartment in Khar, Mumbai. Within minutes of discussing the reasons behind starting House of Pataudi, the actor takes us inside, to his intricately designed air-conditioned room—that has heaps of books, photo frames with images of his family and children, and a sound system with big speakers—to escape the heat and noise.
The climate, Khan continues, in Mumbai particularly, is not friendly. As a result, dressing up for an occasion or function becomes confusing. Often, casual attire, even for a dinner outing, doesn’t come across as elegant. So, taking his love for kurtas and ethnic wear further, he decided to launch House of Pataudi. “With a nice cotton Indian outfit, we are sorted in terms of the look. And I look to our own culture for those things. So I thought we could maybe market that… that is where it came from,” says Khan, adding that Indian fashion can be divided into two areas—clothes that exude a Gandhian simplicity and those that belong to our royal past.