Actor Saif Ali Khan was once accused of buying a Padma Shri. The actor was reading troll comments on Arbaaz Khan’s chat show called Pinch. Khan had been conferred with the fourth-highest civilian honour in 2010. On the show, Khan was reading a comment which called him a ‘two-bit thug who bought a Padma Shri, named his son Taimur, beat up some people in a restaurant’.
“So, two-bit thug, I am not. Everything else is true,” Khan joked but then added: “I mean, it’s a bit beyond me to bribe the Indian government. You will have to ask more senior people.” Khan also revealed that he initially didn’t want to accept the honour as he felt that there were more deserving people than him in the industry. “There were so many senior actors who hadn’t got one and it was very embarrassing. Of course, there are some people who have it, who I feel deserve it less than me also. At least, at that time. But we won’t get into that,” he said.