For someone married to Kareena Kapoor Khan, who has spent years entertaining audiences with her unfiltered anecdotes about Bollywood’s biggest stars, Saif Ali Khan has largely managed to keep his own life away from the social media circus. That may now be changing, with the actor appearing to make his official Instagram debut.

An account under the name Saif Ali Khan Pataudi has surfaced on the platform, carrying one post and around 2K followers at the time of writing. The profile also follows Kareena's account, and while all signs point to Saif finally joining Instagram publicly, the arrival is a notably low-key one by celebrity standards.

There has been no elaborate introduction, no grand announcement and no attempt to break the internet with a family photograph. Instead, Saif has shared a couple of pictures with a caption that offers a glimpse into his interests: Pataudi Library.. Judging books by their cover...

One of the photographs shows the actor engrossed in a book, a fitting image for someone who has spoken in the past about his love for reading. If this is indeed Saif's official entry onto Instagram, he appears to be doing it on his own terms. His arrival is of particular interest because Saif has for long kept a certain distance from the platform, even as social media became an almost indispensable part of celebrity life. In an interview with Hindustan Times two years ago, he had said that he occasionally browsed Instagram through a private account, but rarely enjoyed the experience enough to stay for long.

At the time, the actor had said that endless scrolling often left him wanting to uninstall the app, though he never quite got around to it. He had also spoken about being wary of the expectations that come with having a public profile - the pressure to project a certain personality, post regularly and promote other people’s work. For Saif, staying away offered a degree of freedom. Without an official social media presence, he could avoid the requests and obligations that often come with celebrity accounts, while holding on to a little more privacy.

Even then, he had not entirely ruled out the possibility of changing his mind. In the same conversation, Saif had said that joining Instagram publicly was not impossible, especially because he enjoyed photography and occasionally recorded moments from his life. Sharing those pictures with others, he had suggested, could one day appeal to him.

That possibility now appears to have become reality.