In an industry where glamour sets the standard and everyone, from actors to directors, invests heavily in self-care, Bollywood filmmaker and choreographer Farah Khan admitted that she never paid much attention to her looks until she turned 50. In a conversation with Soha Ali Khan on her YouTube channel, she even recalled a humorous moment when her husband, Shirish Kunder, was mistaken for her son.

Farah Khan on prioritising her skin after turning 50

Farah shared that she had never been focused on looking or feeling good, as she had always been very thin until she had her children. She recalled having terrible skin and said, “I used to not even go for a blow-dry because I used to work non-stop, sometimes day shift and night shift together. But after I hit 50, I realised jab gaadi puraani ho jaati hai toh uska servicing zyada hota hai, toh usko garage mein bhejo (When the car gets old, it needs more servicing, so send it to the garage). So now I visit a skin doctor and regularly take hair vitamins, because you have to. My kids were very young when I turned 50, so I thought they shouldn’t feel like their grandmother had come to drop them at school. Kids also keep us young.”

She then recalled an incident during a family holiday where a woman mistook Shirish for her son. Farah said, “Once we had taken the kids on holiday, and I was literally overweight, and a lady came. Shirish was there, and she said, ‘Can I clean your room? Can you ask your son (Shirish) to leave?’ And Shirish just laughed. He went and told the kids, ‘They thought I was your brother.’ So I realised that after 50, I have to look after myself, and it took me seven years to lose weight.”

Farah Khan and Shirish Kunder’s relationship

Shirish and Farah first crossed paths on the sets of Main Hoon Na in 2004, where Shirish was working as an editor and Farah was making her directorial debut. Their bond grew through long working hours, shared humour and creative connection, eventually blossoming into love. The couple married in 2004 in an intimate ceremony despite an eight-year age difference. Four years later, in 2008, they welcomed their triplets, Diva, Anya and Czar, through IVF.