Khan’s first home
A walk through the narrow street of the Shah Wali Qataal area to see Shahrukh Khan’s ancestral home and hear some fascinating stories about the family from Munni, his first cousin
By Arshad Yusufzai
Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan is a household name in the subcontinent, but not many people are aware of his family’s origins.
It is none other than Peshawar, the oldest city in the region and home to other legendary actors and actresses like Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Madhubala.
Shahrukh Khan’s father Taj Mohammad Mir belonged to Peshawar and lived in the old, walled part of the city before migrating to Delhi.
To reach the ancestral family home, one has to go through a narrow street of the Shah Wali Qataal locality on the back of the historic Qissa Khwani bazaar. This was once the bazaar of storytellers where travellers would be regaled with stories of chivalry and romance over cups of green tea. Now the place is congested with street shops selling pottery, shampoos, soaps and other cosmetics.
Shopkeepers in the street know about Shahrukh’s family house but are reluctant to tell its exact location. A labourer working in the nearby bamboo-ladder making workshops was kind enough to guide me and point to the dark and narrow lane on the left side of the entrance to the local mosque. “Come I will show you the house but don’t tell the family. The owners don’t like anyone showing visitors their house,” he politely requested.
The dilapidated four-story house where Shahrukh’s father, four uncles and aunt spent their childhood is situated at the dead end of the narrow street. A shirtless man in his mid-30s opened the big wooden doors painted in green on the second knock. He introduced himself as Javed Ahmad Mir, Shahrukh’s cousin. He led us through the narrow steps to the first floor where his sister Noor Jehan aka Munni and her three children lived. Javed Mir’s two brothers Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Farooq Ahmad Mir also lived in the house.
The top floor of the house has been damaged and its structure weakened due to repeated bomb blasts conducted by militants in the locality and was demolished a year ago. Still there is enough room to accommodate the four families.
Noor Jehan, commonly known as Munni, tells that her uncle Taj Muhammad Mir studied at the Edwardes College Peshawar before migrating to Delhi because he found harassment of his family at the hands of the police unbearable. “My father and uncles were staunch supporters of united India. My father was an active member of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s ‘Khudai Khidmatgar’ movement. Shahrukh’s father also actively participated in the ‘Quit India’ movement and was arrested on several occasions for delivering speeches against the British colonial rule,” she said.
Noor Jehan, who has served as an elected lady councillor in the city, said the police harassed the family so much that her uncle Taj Mohammad Mir one day decided to leave Peshawar and go to some faraway place in India. According to Noor Jehan, Taj Mohammad Mir ended up in Delhi and married Lateef Fatima, the daughter of Major General Shahnawaz Khan, a freedom fighter of the Indian National Army and an aide to the legendary Subhash Chandra Bose.
Noor has fond memories of her first meeting with the 13-year old Shahrukh, when he came to Peshawar with his father in 1978. “I was only 10 when I first met Shahrukh, he stayed in Peshawar for 22 days. I cannot forget the time we spent playing all day long,” she fondly recalls.
A year later, Shahrukh again visited Peshawar with his father and sister Shahnaz Lalarukh. “This time Shahrukh stayed at our home for a month and we thoroughly enjoyed his company, those were happy days,” she says.
Shahrukh’s two visits to Peshawar in 1978 and 1979 were before he started acting. The would-be King of Bollywood made his acting debut in a television series, ‘Fauji’ in 1988. After the death of his mother in 1991, Shahrukh moved to Mumbai where he made his film debut with the commercially successful ‘Deewana’ in 1992 — and there was no looking back!
Eighteen years after their last meeting with Shahrukh and his sister Shahnaz Lalarukh, Noor Jehan decided to visit her cousins in India. In 1997, she and her husband Asif Shahab arrived at the given address in Delhi only to find out that Shahrukh had moved to Mumbai.
“We had lost contact with Shahrukh after the death of our uncle in 1982 and did not know that he shifted to Mumbai. I called on the phone number that I got from the family living in Shahrukh’s old Delhi house and was relieved to hear Lalarukh’s voice on the other side,” said Noor.
And they hurried to Shahrukh’s Mannat (bungalow) in Mumbai. Shahrukh was on outdoor shooting for ‘Duplicate’ when they arrived at his Mumbai home. “I could not wait to see him but it was only at 2:15am that he came home. He was surprised to see me and shouted “Oye Munni tu kab aayi (O Munni when did you come!).” We talked for the next three hours till five in the morning,” she recalls with teary eyes.
Noor said that despite his busy schedule Shahrukh found time to be with her and her husband. “Shahrukh and Shahnaz took us to a number of places in Mumbai. He would also take us to his film shootings and introduce me to everyone as his sister from Peshawar. I met producer Yash Johar, his son Karan Johar, Juhi Chawla and Sonali Bandre during the shooting of ‘Duplicate’,” she revealed.
Interestingly, Noor tells us that the Peshawari chappal that Shahrukh wore in ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ and the shalwar kameez he adorned in ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ were both presents that she gave to her superstar cousin. “Shahrukh told us he would love to wear Peshawari chappal so we sent him a pair along with a shalwar-kameez of the locally-famous China Boski fabric,” she said.
Meeting with his favourite actor was so exciting for Asif Shahab that he took his wife Noor Jehan again to Mumbai in 1998 and stayed there for over a month. The couple even named their first-born child as Shahrukh Khan after his superstar uncle.
The 10-year old Shahrukh Khan is a big fan of his Indian uncle. His desire to meet his hero SRK hasn’t been fulfilled yet because his four-year-old brother Shahreer Khan is too young to travel. Besides, as the couple argued, the relations between India and Pakistan for the past few years following the Mumbai attacks in 2008 have not been favourable for such visits. “I wish to visit my uncle but we are unable to go there as my little brother is very young. My mother says we have to wait for a few more years before we could visit India,” Shahrukh Khan junior said.
Asked if he wanted to become a movie star like SRK, he said that he loved his uncle and his movies but did not want to become an actor. “I love his movies, especially ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ but I don’t wish to become an actor. I want to play cricket and become famous like Boom Boom Afridi,” he says with a sparkle in his eyes.
Both the families are in contact with each other via phone or the Internet. However, Noor said their communication with each other was limited due to their busy lives. “Shahrukh is a busy person. He cannot spare too much time to talk on the phone and Internet. I am also busy in too many things around here in Peshawar as a former councillor,” she said.
Re: Khan’s first home
Interesting.