Bollywood’s Saif Ali Khan has revealed the details surrounding an intruder intruder entering his house last month and repeatedly stabbing him with a knife. In an exclusive interview with the Times of India, Khan, 54, said that he was woken around 2am when his househelp rushed into his room and screamed that there was an intruder in his son Jeh’s bedroom, demanding money. “Obviously, I kind of lost it, and went in there to see and I saw this guy holding [what I thought were] two sticks over Jeh’s bed — it was actually a hexa blade. So he had a knife in each hand and a mask on. It was a surreal scene.” The Race actor pulled the intruder down and was wrestling with him while the assailant was thumping Khan on the back repeatedly. However, what he believed were thumps turned out to be the man stabbing him with a knife. Khan did not realise it was a knife because of the adrenaline and shock during the incident. “And then he was slashing at my neck, and I was blocking it with my hand. There were slashes to my palm and my wrist and my arm. There was all this violence — slashing with both hands, most of which was kind of defended.” Although the actor fought him off, he said that after a while he could not handle the “two knives in action” because he was “just barefoot, bare-handed, in a kurta pyjama”. Khan’s househelp pulled the intruder off him and shoved him away and the two rolled away and closed the door. “At this point, I was covered in blood and lost some feeling in my right leg. This was because I had been nicked in the spine, but I didn’t realise that at the time — I thought I had been stabbed in the leg.” Meanwhile, the househelp had shut the door to the room the intruder was in and the family believed he was locked inside. However, he escaped the same route he entered from, which was up a drainpipe and into Khan’s children’s bathroom. Khan wanted to go after the intruder, however, his wife, actor Kareena Kapoor urged him to leave the house because she believed the intruder was still within the premises of the home. “We’ve got to get you to a hospital, and I’ve got to get Jeh out of here because I feel he’s [the intruder] still around and there could be more of them,” Kapoor said. Kapoor frantically called people but nobody was awake. “And we looked at each other, and I said, ‘I’m fine. I’m not going to die.’ And Taimur also asked me, ‘Are you going to die?’ I said, ‘No’, Khan recalled. The actor’s older son Taimur, eight, was apparently “absolutely composed” and “fine” after the incident and went with his father to the hospital. “He said, ‘I’m coming with you’, and I thought if something happens… I was getting a lot of comfort just from looking at him at that time. And I did not want to go alone.” Khan, Taimur and their staff member then went to Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital in a rickshaw. What really happened at the hospital The actor confirmed a doctor’s statement that he walked into the hospital covered in blood with Taimur by his side. “It took them a minute to understand that there’s a celebrity involved and this is a slightly bizarre, absurd scenario. Just took a minute to sink in, you know, that a movie star has been stabbed. “I had a lot of clarity and adrenaline.” Khan said after the staff realised who he was, they were very efficient and made some “right decisions” including calling spinal neurosurgeon Dr Nitin Dange. “They said a good three to four inches of the knife has gone in behind the shoulder blade and has worked its way right to the bloody spinal cord. It’s a massive stab and it’s broken off, and it’s nicked the cover of the spinal cord. There’s spinal fluid leaking out, which is why the feeling in the leg was going. That’s how close it came — just one more millimetre and we’d be talking paralysis.” The actor said his doctors did a “phenomenal job” with the surgery, which took six hours, with the spinal matter alone taking two and a half hours. Khan disclosed that he was under anaesthesia for five hours, and the procedure was the longest surgery he had ever been in. Addressing rumours, speculation and conspiracies Responding to questions about how he could walk so well after being so close to paralysis, Khan said, “Close is close. You’re either paralysed or you’re not.” He said it was a miracle that he survived and his body was functioning properly despite the 30 “most awful scars” down his neck. “I don’t understand how he missed my carotid artery and jugular vein… It’s not possible to cut somebody’s neck the way my neck is cut, and not kill them.” He also clarified that he was not chauffeured to the hospital because the drivers on his staff did not stay the entire night unless asked. “Everyone has a home to go to,” he said. According to Khan, he would’ve driven to the hospital himself but could not find the keys. He said it was lucky that he did not find the keys because he should not have moved his back too much. Khan maintained that his family did not call the driver because he would have taken time to get there and he was aware he had to go to the hospital soon. The actor also commented on people’s negative reactions to the attack, including those who claimed he was acting. “I think it is expected that there will be all kinds of reactions to something like this. There will be people ridiculing it. There will be people not believing it, people making fun of it. And I think that’s fine because it is what gives colour to the world. If everyone had a sympathetic reaction to something, it would be flat and dull.” He also appreciated all the kindness in the world, and everyone who said supportive things to make him feel better, “From the ward boys and the doctors to the rickshaw driver, they were all just angels, heaven-sent.” “There is a lot of kindness in the world and a fair amount of stupidity also. But that’s what makes it interesting.” Khan said his instinct was to walk out of the hospital on his own, just how he had walked in by himself, and that he wasn’t trying to show off. “I never thought about how to present it. The more I consider the PR aspect of it, I’ve come to the conclusion that I think my life is pretty interesting for actually what it is, it doesn’t need a twist. It doesn’t need to be twisted and presented.” He continued that his injury wasn’t exaggerated and it was a miracle that he survived. Khan said it was still painful for him to stand for too long, but his aches and pains were getting better every day. “I think it will be a complete recovery.” His family’s reaction Khan was grateful that his children were okay. His youngest son gave him a plastic sword to keep by his bedside for the “next time the chor [thief] comes”. “Taimur is a little concerned about security,” he said, adding that his eldest children Sara and Ibrahim were very emotional. “It’s been really kind of nice for the family to come together, but also obviously, a bit of a shock for everyone. She’s [Kapoor] doing very, very well. Being very strong. Naturally a bit shaken and concerned about things like security.” ‘I’m not under threat’ Khan emphasised that he was not under threat and the invasion was not an attack on him, which is why he would not walk around with multiple security guards. “I’ve never believed in security. I don’t want it. I never wanted to walk around with three of these guys. I think it would be a nightmare for us.” He continued that the incident was a mistake and believed the intruder broke into their home not knowing whose house it was. “It’s not an inside job. It’s none of these things. And the police have done a fantastic job. I feel very safe in Mumbai. I think it’s a completely safe city, but yeah, we hear about stuff like this,” he said. Khan said that one also had to lock the doors and windows properly in every other place in the world, and not tempt fate. He reiterated that the incident would not change his life and that it shouldn’t because that would be “wrong”. He added that the situation was someone trying to steal something “because of desperation”. “Taimur said that he [the intruder] should be forgiven because he believed the guy was hungry. I also believe I would have forgiven him. I feel bad for him, till where that knife comes in and my spine comes in and the fact that he tried to kill me. That’s where I stopped feeling bad for him. I understand why he did it, but he crossed the line when he went mad on me.” The actor said he didn’t blame society, the police or the city of Mumbai. Instead, he blamed himself for not locking the area properly. However, he said he didn’t believe something of the sort could happen. When asked if he would’ve done anything differently if he was in the same situation, he said, “I would put on the light and firstly tell him, ‘Do you know who I am?’ And I think he would say, ‘Oh s***t! I’m in the wrong house.’ And I’d say, ‘Right, put the knife down and let’s talk about this.’ I think I would have tried to reason. But it was a mixture of anger, outrage and a kind of defence. I don’t know. It was just… it was too quick, and it was completely instinctive.”