Sharmila Tagore on Saif Ali Khan-Amrita Singh’s divorce: Felt doubly deprived 

Veteran actress Sharmila Tagore made her Koffee debut as she appeared on the popular chat show Koffee With Karan with her son, actor Saif Ali Khan. The mother-son duo opened up about cinema, family dynamics and Saif's first marriage to Amrita Singh on the show.

The show's host Karan Johar recalled how Saif Ali Khan started dating actress Amrita Singh. "There is one place that he reached and never left. It was Amrita Singh's house. He reached there was the first time and you never left." Karan Johar then added, "And Soha (Saif's sister) tells me that eventually when it culminated into marriage, she was 13 and a classmate told her, your brother just got married."

Saif Ali Khan spoke about his secret wedding to Amrita Singh. "I remember telling my mother." Sharmila Tagore intervened and said, "Actually I was visiting Mumbai for something and Saif came to me, to meet me. And he said I have something to tell you and he told me. And then of course, I don't know what I was doing but I was quiet and he says Amma you're quiet and your colour is changing and you are looking different. And I told him we will talk about it later. And then he left then I rang up Tiger and told him and there was a long silence on his part and then we left it at that. Then I said, I would like to meet her. The next day I called Amrita and we had tea and we chatted, but still quite shocked."

"How does one suddenly get married at that age," Karan Johar asked Saif. The actor responded by saying, "It was kind of like running away from home in a sense. I don't remember so many things going on and I found a kind of security and an idea that it feels great. I thought I could make a home out of that."

Sharmila Tagore added that both Saif and Amrita Singh were very similar in certain aspects. "Both of them were very similar. Both of them were very funny. Whenever they would talk, it would be a lot of laughter, mimicking other people, tearing somebody to bits in a funny way. He is good at mimicry and she is a great storyteller. They looked really happy together," she added.

Saif added that his mom was supportive when she got to know about his and Amrita's marriage. "She (Sharmila Tagore) was supportive when I did it, and I remember it. She had said, I believe you are living with someone and you are doing something. So I said yes and she said that don't get married. And I said that I got married yesterday. And a big tear fell off her eye. She started crying and she said, you really hurt me, why didn't you tell me. So that's actually what happened there," Saif Ali Khan said.

Saif added that his mother was the first person he spoke to before his and Amrita's separation.

"About the separation, the first person I spoke to before the separation was my mother, who took a deep breath and there was another pause on the phone and said, I am with you if that is what you want and that helped a lot."

Speaking about Saifand Amrita's separation, Sharmila Tagore said, "When you are together for such a long time and you have such lovely children, then no break-up is easy. Then it is not a harmonious... I know it is difficult to have harmony at that stage, everybody is hurt... so that stage was not nice but I tried. But that's water under the bridge, she needed time to cool down."

Sharmila Tagore added that it was rough time for not just for Saif but for the family as well. "It's not just staying away, there are so many other things that are involved. It wasn't a happy time for us because Ibrahim was just three and we were very fond of the children. Especially, Tiger was fond of Ibrahim and he would say, 'That's a good lad'. He didn't get that time with him. So we felt doubly deprived to lose Amrita and the two kids. So it's just not him but we also had to adjust to all that."

Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh got married in 1991 and got divorced in 2004. Saif and Amrita are parents to a son named Ibrahim Ali Khan and daughter Sara Ali Khan. Saif eventually married actressKareena Kapoor in 2012 and they are parents to sons Taimur and Jeh.