“I love Hyderabad and I’ve always loved Hyderabad. It’s a place that’s very close to my heart”
Prince Mir Mohammet Azmet Jah, fondly known as Azmet Jah, succeeded as the Ninth Nizam of Hyderabad, upon the demise of his father, Nizam Mir Barkat Ali Khan Siddiqi Mukarram Jah, Asaf Jah VIII in 2023.
We are extremely privileged, as Nizam Azmet Jah gave us an exclusive and personal interview, candidly speaking about his early life, his relationship with his father, the Eighth Nizam, his family, and his ties to Hyderabad.
Unlike a formal interview, Nizam Azmet Jah chatted and conversed with us, sharing stories of his life and experiences. Both his frankness and his modesty spoke volumes, not only about himself as an individual, but as someone who we are all proud to have as the Ninth Nizam.
In this article, he has also kindly shared with us many of his personal photographs, that will bring nostalgic memories as also awe of a time and age gone by.
Nizam Azmet Jah with his mother Princess Esra, on his first visit to Hyderabad in 1960
Huma: Could you please share a memorable experience from your childhood in Chiraan, your father’s house in Hyderabad, and how it influenced your early years.
Azmet: I never really grew up in Hyderabad. I used to come with my sister, Princess Shekhar Jah, to Hyderabad during the Christmas holidays; my parents would be here in Chiraan. That’s where we spent most of our time. My parents were married at the time, and I have a lot of fond memories. I learned to drive; my sister learned to ride. But one of my biggest memories and I’ve said this in past interviews as well, is just learning the prayers from my father and driving him to the mosque on Fridays, well after all he taught me to drive; I was only nine years old at the time. But I used to drive him to the Chiraan mosque and go to prayers. Then after prayers having a delicious meal at our house. Everybody refers to Chiraan as a palace now but it’s the house that we grew up in.
“My feet are firmly on the ground and I’m trying to be open and have people being able to approach me.”
Nizam Azmet Jah at the reception room of the Falaknuma Palace
Nizam Azmet Jah, and Princess Shehkar with their mother Princess Esra at Falaknuma Palace
Nizam Azmet Jah with his mother Princess Esra and Grandmother Princess Durusehvar Sultan.
On his first visit to Hyderabad, in 1960
“I am currently working on a documentary on my great-grandfather, Mir Osman Ali Khan. Butthat’s been in the works for quite a few years now.”
HEH Mir Osman Ali Khan, VII Nizam, and Princess Dürrüşehvar with Nizam Azmet Jah in 1960
Princess Shehkar Jah and Nizam Azmet Jah with their pet elephant Albert in Chiraan in 1967/1968
Huma: So you never got a chance tospend time at the Chowmahalla Palace or at the Falaknuma Palace when you were growing up?
Azmet: No, none at all. Like I mentioned earlier, we did spend one of our very last new year’s party’s here in 1974 but that’s all I know. I can elaborate on that if you want. I remember my father taught me shooting with a .22 and he used to drive us around. He used to take us on picnics. We used to have an elephant in the garden as a pet, and panthers and snakes roamed around too. That’s what I remember but it was always really with my father and my mother.
Nizam Azmet Jah learning to drive in Chiraan grounds in 1972
Huma: Even though you spend much of your time overseas you frequently visit Hyderabad and your home at the Falaknuma Palace. How does your connection with the city influence your work and personal life?
Azmet: I love Hyderabad and I’ve always loved Hyderabad. It’s a place that’s very close to my heart because I spent all my youth during Christmas holidays over here. Even after my parents divorced, I came back here in 1994 with my father. I feel very close to it. I like the people here, culture and the food. It feels like I haven’t been away even though coming back here after such a long time away was very emotional and very difficult the first time. I came back with my sister. Hyderabad has changed in the last 40 years or 45 years. I remember, my father and my sister used to ride from Chiraan, all the way to Golconda Fort. I couldn’t, because I didn’t know how to ride. My sister loved horses, that was her passion, so she rode. I’ve always loved driving. And I learned to drive on his World War II American Willys jeep.
Huma: So do you still have that, Jeep?
Azmet: Yes, I do. It’s sitting in the Chowmahalla at the moment, unfortunately, rotting away. I’m sure with a new battery, a bit of an oil change it would work…. I hope!
Huma: What emotions and reflections did you have when returning to Hyderabad in 1994?
Azmet: It was very emotional, really, coming back. I never thought that I’d actually come back here. Hyderabad was the furthest thing on my mind.
Nizam Azmet Jah and Princess Shehkar with Nizam VIII, Mukarram Jah at Erenköy, Istanbul, in 1965
But I got this call from my father one morning saying, “I’m going back to Hyderabad. Do you want to come with me”? So, I said “yes”. And he also called my sister up. So, we both got on a flight and came out here. And it was very emotional. I think it was difficult at first, driving up to Chiraan and seeing everything. Anyway, we came home, and it was difficult seeing my old bedroom and going through all the trunks, containing all my old stuff from the 60s. I had all my comic books and all my toys. I’d walk into one room and burst into tears. And then my sister would walk into another room, her bedroom, and then see something that reminded her of her past. And she would burst into tears. Father took my sister, Shehkar, to the garage where in the 60’s she had drawn a picture of a horse on the garage wall and told her it would be a flogging offence if anyone had wiped it off. It felt very good to be back. But like I said earlier, being back with my father, that was the most important thing for me.
“Photography is in my blood. I must have got the photography bug from my great grandfather, Nizam VII, as he had a keen interest in it, as was my father.”
Nizam Azmet Jah at the Jade Room in the Falaknuma Palace
Having come back here alone, I think things would have been different. But being with him, going back to the house that I grew up in, it was difficult. But I’m glad I did. We left, I think, in 1974. Our father told us we wouldn’t be coming back. I was a teenager, and my sister wasn’t even a teenager.
Asad: Do you do any of your photography when you’re here?
Azmet: Oh, yes, all the time. Photography is in my blood. I must have got the photography bug from my great grandfather, Nizam VII, as he had a keen interest in it, as was my father. No matter where I go, I always carry a camera around with me, except today!
Nizam Azmet Jah working on movies in the late 1980s
Asad: Have you thought of creating a film around Hyderabad or about your heritage?
Azmet: No, I haven’t thought about making any films on Hyderabad itself.
I am currently working on a documentary on my great-grandfather, Mir Osman Ali Khan. Butthat’s been in the works for quite a few years now, so I don’t want to sound too redundant. A finished product was delivered to me, but it wasn’t quite what I wanted, so now I think it’s better to try and find an Indian editor to edit the documentary.
Asad: So do you have to use the raw footage and go back to the drawing board, so to speak?
Azmet: Yes, I need an Indian editor, who’s young, someone who’s keen, someone who’s creative. That’s the type of editor I need. I have all the footage I need.
Asad: You did answer a part of the question where you said, where you were talking about this film, and I think it’s a very important to your family, important to your heritage, important for others to know about.
Azmet: Well, that’s why I want to make it, because everybody has a misconception about the 7th Nizam.
Asad: Exactly. There are so many misconceptions, and you know, I think, it does deserve a correct perspective, a true perspective, rather than being viewed at from different eyes by different people who have their own perspective.
Azmet: Yes, that’s very true, and I think the other thing that I’m trying to keep away from in this documentary is the politics and the religious aspects of it. But really letting people know the type of person he was.
Nizam Azmet Jah at his USC Graduation in 1984
Nizam Azmet Jah at his USG Graduation in 1984 along with sister Princess Shehkar Jah, mother Princess Esra,
uncle Mehmet Birgen, and grandmother Reyan Sehsurvaroglu
I was working on this project in 2015, 2016 and 2017. I kept coming back (to Hyderabad) twice a year to do all the filming. I like to call it a labour of love, because we’ve got many great interviews with a lot of people that have unfortunately passed away now. My father would never give any interviews and I’d say to him, “I’m doing this project” and he’d say, “okay I’ll give you an interview”. And I’d always ask him “Today” and he’d say, “No tomorrow – I’ll think about it”. And on the last day before I left, he said “I’ll do it now”! And of course, you know you’re not prepared for that. And he’d say, “I’m sitting in this chair”, which was his favorite chair and he said, “I’m not moving”. So, you just literally had to place the camera in front of him. But I’m glad I got some footage of that. I know I got some excellent comments from him in the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.
We were walking together, and I had the camera and I said, “tell me something about the Dolmabahce Palace?” To which he had a very witty comment:”It used to be our family home, however in the 1924 revolution, we got the sack! This is on my mother’s side. On my father’s side, we also were dispossessed by the Indian government so that makes a record of some kind….being exiled from two countries.” My father had a great but dark sense of humour!
I really don’t understand politics either. So, there’s a very funny story I can tell when they were opening Falaknuma. There was a massive party here with lots of people. There was one person from the government who came up to me and asked me, “why don’t you get into politics” and I replied to him “but I don’t understand anything about politics so I wouldn’t be much use” and he said, “oh you don’t need to know anything about politics”! It was quite amusing.
Princess Shehkar and Nizam Azmet Jah
Asad: Are there any specific plans for the various palaces, including the Chowmahalla Palace Museum, because that effectively shares the history of your family? And anything as far as the other palaces and estates?
Azmet: I think Chowmahalla needs lot of restoration still to be done on it. I think the archives are the most important things we have. I have tried in the past to get financing to build a full state-of-the-art sort of like digital center to digitize all the documents. I haven’t been able to succeed in that, but they really need to be looked after and stored correctly. I think we need a lot of restoration to the buildings; painting, supporting the buildings, fixing the roofs. A great deal needs to be done. I think at the very beginning when people started to restore it for the first time, they kind of put the horse before the cart and now we have to go back and do a whole lot of the same restoration again.
Nizam Azmet Jah with his father, Mukarram Jah, Nizam VIII, and Princess Shekhar Jah on New Years 1974.
Asad: As far as the museum itself is concerned.
Azmet: The museum itself is really fantastic. I’ve been photographing a lot of the areas now for the for the website and it really is stunning. The Quran exhibition is incredible and the swords and the costumes. Everything is really stunning, on the inside! I think just maybe the outside needs a bit more aesthetically.
Asad: Is there a lot which is being written about each item?
Azmet: Yes, there’s a lot being written. I am hopefully going to be doing a book on Chowmahalla. A friend of mine is going to be participating with all the history and the writing, while I’m going to concentrate on the photography. Otherwise, the book won’t sell because all the information would be wrong!
Mukarram Jah Nizam VIII and Nizam Azmet Jah at Qutub Shahi Tombs
Huma: Your sister is also part of the museum?
Azmet: Yes well when I say that I’m going to do all that, it really means the family; my sister is also involved there with the restorations. She has many ideas, and she has the museum shop. It’s doing apparently really well so altogether we’re trying to really keep it going. But I think we need more events there. We need to do a lot of things for drawing in the public.
Nizam Ahmet Jah at the table for 101 at the Falaknuma Palace
Huma:Do you have good friends here in Hyderabad? Do you go to their homes?
Azmet: Yes, I’ve got some good friends here. Yes, I go their homes and they come to my Palace, but that doesn’t sound right, I mean home, here too! Before Covid, I usually spent three to four months here. I used to come twice a year.
Huma: Growing up in Istanbul, reconnecting with your wife after 30 years, deciding to get married in a month. What factors contributed to this unique love story?
Azmet: I want to crack a joke, but I won’t start with that! No that was just one of those things, because I never expected to even see Naz again. I knew her family. I know that both families were close. Naz has three brothers and we all played together in our garden as children. And after that, I don’t know, we just split apart. I went off to study in England and she went off to Switzerland. I never saw Naz, for many years. I was in Istanbul, in 1996. She was in Istanbul too, and we met at a mutual friend’s party.
Nizam Azmet Jah at the Falaknuma Palace
And it was very quick. And there’s that saying, people say, oh, you know when you meet the woman or the man you’re going to marry. And I always thought it was a load of rubbish. But when I saw her, I knew it.
And then the second time I saw Naz, when her brother was getting married in Turkey. I accepted their invitation and I came back for their wedding a month later in Switzerland and proposed to her.
Nizam Ahmet Jah with his wife Princess Naz, his father Nizam VIII Mukarram Jah, sister Princess Shehkar and mother Princess Esra.
Asad: So how soon after meeting after 30 years did you propose to her?
Azmet: Probably about a month. It was quick, and we’re still going strong. Touchwood!
Huma: Your son, he must be wanting to have the same kind of a life. Looking at both of you and saying, I wish I would meet somebody wonderful like mom.
Azmet: Yes. I’m sure. I’m sure he does. One has to remember that this is the first time in the family where both parents have actually stayed married together. Because my parents divorced and my grandparents divorced, so this is the first time he’s seeing probably the way a marriage should be, I think. And it makes him more secure growing up. It was a conscious decision on my part when he was born to be a hands-on parent and to be there for him. Even though my father had a different situation, he was an absent father. So, I just didn’t want my son to go through the same thing.
Nizam Azmet Jah with Princess Naz after their wedding in 1996
Nizam Azmet Jah with Princess Naz and Princess Durusehvar after their wedding in 1996
Huma: How has family life influenced your perspective and priorities? Could you share more about your wife, Princess Naz, and your son, Prince Murad?
Azmet: I can start off by saying that nothing ever prepares you for marriage and parenthood. There are no classes. All the advice people can give you; nothing prepares you for being a hands-on parent. And it was difficult. I have to be honest. I can’t say everything was all fun and games. But it was good. I think it makes you more responsible. Well, it made me maybe more responsible and more caring. To make something work it involves a lot of compromise and communication. I think those are the two most important things. And Naz is very much like that as well. So, we get along, and we’re trying to teach our son, Murad, the same values.
Nizam Azmet Jah with Princess Naz in London, in May 1996
Nizam Azmet Jah with Princess Naz and Mukarram Jah, Nizam VIII in London on his wedding day in 1996
Asad: He’s studying at university now?
Azmet: No, he just graduated with his master’s with honors in environmental studies and is now doing his PHD in Environmental Change Physiology. I think he’s happy with that. We have the same type of hobbies. Probably he’s got that from me as well. He loves photography.
He loves scuba diving. We’ve been diving together. He even talked me into doing a shark dive in the Bahamas with Tiger and Hammerheads, which was wonderful.
Asad: Were you in a cage or something?
Azmet: No cage!
Huma: So how about him and his relationship in this part of the world, Hyderabad?
Azmet: Murad has only been to Hyderabad once and that was for Cartier’s Concours D’Elegance car show at Falaknuma. He loved being there and felt very much at home. Murad also loves Indian food so if nothing else, the food will bring him back!!!!
Asad: So do you give him any Indian food at home, or what kind of food?
Azmet: Actually, he cooks for me. He’s a very good cook. But I won’t say he’s cooked me Indian food, yet!
Nizam Azmet Jah with Prince Murad in Hawaii Maui
Prince Murad and Princess Naz
Huma: How much influence does your mother, Princess Esra, have on your life, and what role has she played in keeping the family a close-knit unit?
Azmet: Well she’s always been there for my sister and me. She reached out to Prince Azam and Prince Umar several years after their mother passed away. She’s always been very keen on getting and holding the family together. Yes, and also, my
half-sister, Princess Niloufer. It’s a big family that’s living all over the world, so it’s nice. She keeps everybody together, really. The amusing thing is that Azam is in Australia. So, India, Hyderabad is halfway. He comes here from Australia, we come from Europe, from London, so it’s a convenient place to get together.
Huma: As a professional photographer and a cinematographer, how has your artistic expression been shaped by your cultural background?
Azmet: That’s a difficult one to answer. No, I don’t think it’s shaped me as a photographer in any way. Because I’ve been taking pictures since I was like eight, nine years old, so I’ve always taken photos wherever I’ve gone.
Nizam Azmet Jah and Princess Naz
Asad: Is there any special segment of photography that has always interested you?
Azmet: Yes, I’ve always liked landscapes. But then, it’s anything. I take my camera everywhere, so whenever I see that meets the eye, I take a photo. And especially here in Hyderabad, what I love the most is you find all these wonderful signs. Road signs, or Advertising, but the Indian English! I don’t know if that’s what it’s called. It’s just so wonderful. In fact, I won’t say it here now, but there’s one I want to definitely photograph before I go back.
“Murad is very confident, very outgoing, very amicable. He loves to get up and talk in front of everyone. And he loves India. And he loves being here. But I think his fear is he doesn’t spend enough time here. So, I always tell him, get your education first and then you can always come here anytime you want.
Nizam Azmet Jah in the corridor of the Falaknuma Palace
In fact, just on this trip to Hyderabad I saw two that I loved, one was ‘The Birth Zone’ and the other in a clothes shop ‘Trial Room’.
Nizam Azmet Jah with his father Nizam VIII, Mukarram Jah, and sister Princess Shehkar Jah at Chiraan in Hyderabad in 1996
I love all the aspects of ‘Old School’ analogue film photography from taking the photos to developing and printing them.
But I have to say that in the last few years, I’ve been digitizing all my father’s 16mm and Super 8 films that he took back in the 50s in Hyderabad and Istanbul. When he was a young man and with his Chris Craft and when he was water skiing with a young Faisal of Iraq.So, I’ve been digitizing all those, and it’s interesting to see that type of footage that I’ve never seen before.
I recovered them all from the Chiraan basem*nt, many of them deteriorated terribly but I’ve been able to salvage some good and historic footage. There’s also footage of my parents arriving in Hyderabad with me as a baby. It’s a great way to look into the past.
Huma: So will you be including all that in your documentary?
Azmet: I don’t think so. Not that it’s personal. I don’t think it applies, really, to the documentary. But I would like to get some monitors up in Chowmahalla and show the footage. I don’t think people have – well, nobody could have seen that or actually remember that far back.
Huma: In your extensive career working with luminaries like Steven Spielberg and Sir Richard Attenborough, are there any valuable lessons that you have learned?
Azmet: I don’t know about lessons I’ve learned, but it’s just wonderful working with those professionals because they’re all old school, they’re very polite and very nice and they’re very talented. It’s been great working with them, but I was always involved with the camera department. I never really got to speak to them or get to know them socially. But seeing the way they work; one does learn a lot.
Especially with Mr. Spielberg because he used to set up all the shots himself. He really knew the craft very well, so just watching him and listening to him, one would learn lot.
Asad: Of course, Sir Richard was totally different because his perspective was on nature?
Azmet: Sir Richard was such a nice typical English gentleman director. And of course, this is nothing new, but he’d never remember anybody’s name, so he’d call everybody darling – “oh, yes darling, or no darling”. I found that amusing. But for me it was really working with the directors of photography. So, I was closer to them, really, than the directors of the film.
There were other big-name directors that I worked with too, Nicolas Roeg, Paul Verhoeven and Terence Young, director of the 1st, 2nd & 4th James Bond movies.
“The only thing I can say is my father was the Eighth Nizam. He passed the title on to me, being his eldest son.”
“Making something work involves a lot of compromise and communication, and Naz and I both understand that well. So, we get along, and we’re trying to teach our son the same values.”
Nizam Azmet Jah at the Jade Room in the Falaknuma Palace
There were also the great Directors of Photography such as Douglas Slocombe, Sven Nykvist, John Alonzo, Jan de Bont, and Franco Di Giacomo. All of whom I have had the greatest respect for and have had the privilege to work with.
Huma: Could you highlight any memorable achievements or milestones in your life that you are particularly proud of?
Azmet: I think the biggest achievement for me is being a good parent, because that is something I know my wife and I have tried very hard. I mean, of course, nobody’s perfect. But I think that when you have a young one, I think that’s important.
I wouldn’t call it a milestone, but I think achievements, like working on the films with all these very well-respected cinematographers. I think that’s a great achievement too.
The VIII Nizam Prince Mukarram Jah and Prince Murad on the Buyuk Ada, Princess Islands in 2008
Princess Naz and son Prince Murad, Turkey, 2019
Huma : Could you give us some idea of your life in California, England, and Turkey?
Azmet: Well, England. I was born, raised, and educated in England, so London is always my home. As far as Turkey goes, I still go there quite a bit. I have friends and family there.
Asad: Where do you normally go in Turkey?
Azmet: Usually to Istanbul. But Naz and I have friends that live down south. Some summers we go and stay with them. In my twenties and my thirties, I always used to go there in the summers because I have friends there. And of course, being in that milieu, then that’s where I met Naz.
Asad: You dived for the first time with your father?
Azmet: Yes, my father got me into diving. He was the first civilian diver in Turkey. He told me many great stories about his dives over there. I spent quite a bit of time in Turkey.
Prince Murad at University of Southern California’s Rugby Team, 2018
Prince Murad and Princess Naz in London
Asad: Was England both school and college?
Azmet: No, it was just high school.Yes, I went to Millfield, and I would have to say that was the worst time of my life. British boarding school in the 70s! But after that I went to America, to the University of Southern California to study filmmaking.
After Millfield, I spent one year at Long Island University where I really developed the passion for photography. There I had my own photography shows and took photos for their weekly newspaper. It was then that I decided to take up photography as a profession. I applied to and was accepted at Brooks Institute of Photography, one of the top photography schools in 1981. Unfortunately, I was at the same time offered a place in USC”s film school so I made the decision to studyfilming. In 1984, I graduated with a BA in Cinematography.
Nizam Azmet Jah working on movies in the late 1980s
Huma: And was it a good time there?
Azmet: Yes, wonderful. Very, very nice.
Asad: Do you spend most of your time in California today?
Azmet: No. I live in London, but during Covid I was in America.
I could say there’s so much more I could talk about, you know, what I do in Turkey. I think the second phase of; not the second phase, but when my father moved to Turkey after Australia. That was another part of Turkey that I love because he lived down south in Antalya. And we used to go on drives and explore. I would call him the Indiana Jones of Turkey because he would really go off the beaten track. We’d drive and he’d go exploring everywhere. On one occasion we went on a drive from Antalya in southern Turkey to Cizre just north of the Tigris river to eastern Turkey to look for Noah’s tomb. We found it but in the process were almost arrested by the Turkish secret police. I wasn’t allowed to take any photos, but these were the sort of adventures I had with my father when he lived in Turkey. And that was great.
And then going back to the photography question you asked earlier. A lot of photographs, a lot of videos. Which I never really had of my father before that, so they were very special times. Even though I never knew my father that well before. I think during that period when he was in Turkey, I really got to know him the most.
Huma: So, have you spent time in Australia?
Azmet: Not a lot of time, but in my twenties Shehkar and I used to go down to Australia and spend time with our father. But I was always there on holidays. So, it was always maybe a month. But I was too young then to really understand or appreciate him. He always wanted to do what he wanted to do and what he thought we should do with him. Rather than asking us what we would like to do while in Australia. But it was totally different. At least over there I know he enjoyed himself and he did what he wanted, and it was like a replacement of Hyderabad for him. I think that’s why he moved down to Western Australia.
Huma: Your family has a rich heritage and legacy. How do you plan to carry forward the tradition and legacy of your ancestors?
Azmet: Well, I suppose being here is the start of it all and continuing from what my mother has done here, and my father, and really continuing that. As far as legacy, I don’t know. And I’ll try and do my best to keep everything running and running smoothly. I have to try and do the best that I can to move everything forward and continue the legacy, really. It just means being here more often, being more involved with everything, being responsible and accountable.
Asad: Would you be able to make the time to spend more time here?
Azmet: Yes, of course. I wouldn’t be able to do all that by being in another country. But yes, I think that one has to continue otherwise it would be a waste of everyone’s time and effort. One can’t let it go down the drain again like the mistakes my father made.
Asad: Would you say you may come here more than twice a year, or would you spend more time each time?
Azmet: Possibly. Yes, I’d come, you know, I’d spend more time here. There’s definitely nothing in my mind saying, oh no, I can’t come now, or I don’t want to come back. It’s just coming back.
Nizam Azmet Jah at the 101 dining table at the Falaknuma Palace
Asad: I think the question which many people really are thinking of is how committed are you today to Hyderabad and the legacy of the family?
Azmet: I can start by saying that I wouldn’t be sitting here with you now. I am committed. I have to. As crazy as this may sound, I’ve been appointed the head of the family, so one has to take that seriously. And I am committed otherwise there’s no point being here really.
Asad: And you are the ninth Nizam.
Azmet: You said it for me.
Asad: Yes, you are the ninth Nizam. I know there have been one or two people who tried to claim a position who shouldn’t have because they have no rights in any case. Any comments on that?
Azmet: Well, the only thing I can say is my father was the Eighth Nizam. He passed the title on to me, being his eldest son.
Huma: You’ve been doing a lot in the last year. Things have changed in a year – a lot more interviews, a lot of times – pressure.How has your life changed after your coronation as the 9th Nizam last year. What does this title mean to you?
Azmet: I know things have changed since my father died. There’s going to be more responsibility. It’s not that I’m afraid of responsibility. It’s just adjusting to it, because whenever I came to Hyderabad it was always my father, the Nizam. I always used to do everything with him when he was here; so, did my sister. But now, to be honest, I find it very strange when people say you’re the Nizam. It hasn’t really sunk in yet!
Nizam Azmet Jah at the swimming pool of the Nizam Suite at the Falaknuma Palace
Asad: By nature you are a modest person – there are no two ways about it, anyone can see that.
Azmet: Being modest is one thing, yet being here, everyone knows who I am. Even though a friend of mine suggested here that I should have a t-shirt that says number 9 on the back! And number 10 is for my son.
Huma: Well here, they say that number 9 is a very lucky number! The number nine gets along with everyone else.
Azmet: My feet are firmly on the ground and I’m trying to be open and having people being able to approach me. I’ve seen my father, at times, where, especially in his younger days, he’d give orders to everybody and it would be difficult for people to see him. So, I thought well if I’m here, I might as well be more approachable and have the doors open. So, for me to be down to earth, meet people, speak to them, because that’s me. And I have no intention of comparing myself to number VII, Mir Osman Ali Khan. But from my understanding he was in his later life, very open, and people could just come and see him and speak to him. So, I thought well maybe that’s the way to do it?
Prince Murad and Nizam Azmet Jah in 2017 at the Chowmahalla Palace
Huma: And one more thing, I may want to add, if you’re comfortable, maybe have a social media platform?
Azmet: Yes, I have been told that maybe having a social media platform in Hyderabad is a good idea.But you know what, I’m not into publicity seeking. It’s not for me. It’s like this is the way I am. This is the way you have to accept me. I’m not going to try and be something I’m not, because then it just doesn’t work.But having said that, I don’t mind putting myself out if people want something from me then that that’s fine by me too. But to try and be a character that I’m not, it’s not me.
When we speak about social media, I do have a Facebook page. But I don’t use it for ‘look at me, I’m having a cup of coffee here’. Anyone can reach me through Facebook.
Asad: Looking back at your journey, what piece of advice or insight would you give to your younger self or your son, Prince Murad especially during times of uncertainty or challenges in preserving your family’s legacy?
Azmet: Hindsight is 20-20 vision.
Well, I always tell my son, one step at a time. So, tackle and worry about whatever it is when you get to it. Not to worry too much about everything before it happens, for it may not happen. I’m a worrier. And I don’t want him to be like me.
Well, he has to take the mantle. After me, it’s going to be his job. And when he gets his PhD, then one will have a problem with the titles. Would one call him Nizam or Doctor? But he’s going to have to face probably the same challenges that I will have to. And he’s got a pretty good head on his shoulders, so he’d be okay. I don’t think I really need to advise him too much. He has a lot of common sense. And he’s also very good. He loves to talk and explain everything. So, I’m sure if you did interviews with him, they’d flow like water. He’d be much easier than I am at talking. He’s very confident, very outgoing, very amicable like that. So, I’m just saying that there’s a difference in character, because for me, even though I do my interviews, I’m still a little nervous about that, whereas he’s not. He loves to get up and talk in front of everyone. And he loves India. And he loves being here. But I think his fear is he doesn’t spend enough time here. So, I always tell him, get your education first and then you can always come here anytime you want.
“I tell people when they ask me about being the Nizam, that I am a Nizam of the 21st Century. Things are very different today. The Nizam today does not have the wealth that Nizam VII had, the Nizam has no power and no special privileges….. it’s just a title.”
Nizam Ahmet Jah at the table for 101 at the Falaknuma Palace
With the publisher and CEO of you and I magazine and also old family friends of The nizam.
Pictures Courtesy: Azmet Jah
Pics: Srihari/Satish (Falaknuma Palace)
Asad K LatifAsaf Jah VIIIHuma Bilgrami LatifNizam Azmet JahPrincess EsraSiddiqi Mukarram Jah
