Saif Ali Khan has matured during his 25-year long career and the effects can be seen in his reel and real life, says Saimi Sattar
Actor Saif Ali Khan wears his lineage lightly. He acknowledges it, as one of the things that are omnipresent in life, like breathing, but doesn’t let it weigh too heavily on him. At the Imperial Hotel, which insiders say is his favourite hangout in Delhi, the scion of Pataudi is busy promoting his movie, Chef, which is slated for release next week. The movie is a remake of a 2014 American comedy-drama, written, produced and directed by Jon Favreau.
Rather than handing out stock answers, Khan mulls over each question, chooses the most appropriate word to convey his feelings and refuses to be hurried by his PR team. He is quick to point out that this change has come with age. “I’ve become more patient and that works with directors now. I was quite jumpy earlier and it suited the roles I did,” he says. But the wisdom took its own time seeping in, he admits. “People told me that I shouldn’t try to do much. But you understand it when you are ready to accept things. Even the secret of Islam was revealed to the Prophet after his 40th birthday. Not when he was 25,” says the 47-year-old actor.
Growing older (and along with it, wiser) has also changed him in his personal space. Khan prefers to live in the moment and is more comfortable in his own company. “I know what kind of person I’d like to be. I get simple joys out of reading, art and music. I want to educate myself about things that I missed out in school or university. I have a great respect for learning that must have been ingrained in me but I disregarded it when I was a teenager,” he says.
The passage of time has helped him in other ways. “I believe a person develops a sense of self, a distinct style of acting after 25 years. Even though we are quite youth-centric and I hope it isn’t too late,” he says and bursts out laughing in self deprecating humour.
However, Khan was a part of a tectonic shift in Hindi cinema that took place with the iconic Dil Chahta Hai but he doesn’t claim credit for it. “I would credit Aditya Chopra or Farhan for that change. I remember having a conversation with Aditya who told me that there is the rise of the new phenomenon of multiplexes and he wanted me to be his multiplex hero. He told me that if I was careful and sensible about it, I would have a huge market because I had that sensibility. On my part I can say, the environment was conducive to that,” he says looking away in the distance.
But the ripples of the change are felt even now. “There is a transition and there is a strong sense of the need for Indianness. The definition of Indian culture is clear in my mind and in that of the audience. There is a shift away from the going abroad to shoot which production houses like Dharma and Yashraj made aspirational. But now, more heartland stories are being told. We’re looking inward,” he says.
However, there is one aspect which Khan feels is being neglected in the craft of film making. “Most kids, including my own, want to work in movies. Soha Ali Khan, (his sister) has been to Oxford and london School of Economics and wanted to be an actor. But no one wants to be a writer,” he says attributing it for the absence of quality content.
Its lack, Khan feels, is the reason his career plateaued out despite phenomenal acting in movies like Omkara where he played the unforgettable langda Tyagi. “I can’t really blame myself and say that I took my eyes off the ball. I maintained and sustained concentration level for 25 years (he debut in Yash Chopra’s Parampara in 1993) which is incomprehensible to me. But you don’t get an Omkara every day where Vishal Bhardwaj reinterprets Shakespeare while making an artistic project where mainstream heroes like myself are playing villains.” After playing a rustic character which is an exact opposite of his urbane, suave and sophisticated self, Khan had hoped that there would be more challenging offers. “I noticed that there’s a high and then you hit an invisible ceiling and the only way is down or flat. And then there is repetition with a younger guy which is a great relief for producers and directors as they just need a new cast for the same story,” he says with a shrug.
Khan was panned for his debut — for looking too much like his mother, for having a squeaky voice and a diction which bore more than traces of his education in the west. But slowly and steadily he did some good movies, in-between forgettable ones. “It was rough but people were patient and forgiving. Every now and then there was some success which enabled me to survive. Honestly I don’t know how to explain because I probably didn’t know for the longest of times what I was doing. I think I’ve just figured it out and I am still trying to apply it,” he says.
But Khan, for sometime now, is not just acting. He produced, love Aaj Kal in 2009 under the banner of his production house, Illuminati. Despite five more movies down the line, he continues to see himself more as an actor. “I’m used to being an actor and a star. And by star I mean various things like being somebody who can drive projects. Somebody who can provide energy for the systems that move,” he pauses and goes on to add, “I have produced films but mainly, it’s been about selecting scripts. I don’t think I have found my creative expression in production.” Though he doesn’t dispute that production too can be a creative process. “Producers come up with an idea, decide who are the best people to make it with, share the vision and realise it. They need an understanding about the right medium and know the difference between whether the idea could make a great movie or a web series. Or if it could just remain a short story in a book or just a joke,” he says.
As a producer, Khan admits that there is very little original content that comes to him. “There is very little that bowls me over in terms of originality and I don’t mean to be disrespectful. I never read something where I say wow it affected me a lot,” he insists.
And it is this lack of original content which is the reason for adaptations like Chef, he says. But he is quick to point out, “Fistful of Dollars is an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. The source material doesn’t matter as long as there is a sensible adaptation. Now it is different from the 90s when people just stole ideas and they didn’t work because of cross cultural references. It is a good idea to adapt but it should suit the cultural context.”
With cricketer, Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi as father and actor Sharmila Tagore as mother, it is hard to play down his legacy. Khan says that despite it, he worked hard to be self-sufficient. “My mother has restored Pataudi and there is an area which has been walked on by our family for 600 years,” he says and then guffaws, “It is 200 years. Six hundred thoda zyada bol diya.”
Khan knows and accepts the kind of following his father commanded. “My father was an international star and top level in every decade of his life,” he says.
Coming to Khan’s own children, his youngest, Taimur with actor Kareena Kapoor is growing up under intense media gaze, something which is different from his own childhood. “You try and level with the kids and tell them to be straightforward and normal like you weren’t under constant exposure. One needs to tell them that they have certain responsibilities to behave in a certain way and ideally not be photographed,” he says. He hopes to give Taimur as much balance as possible and send him off to a boarding school in England to keep him grounded.
Khan’s eldest daughter Sara is also set to make her debut in with Abhishek Kapoor’s Kedarnath. “She always wanted to be an actor and I am glad that her dreams are coming true. She’s intelligent and hardworking,” he says
And since Sara would be the third generation in movies, a discussion on nepotism is inevitable. “It makes it easy as it opens doors for you. But it can’t sustain on connections alone. Ultimately it’s a business and needs returns on investment,” he says.
After Chef, Khan will be seen in Kaalakaandi by director Akshat Verma. Then there is Bazaar with a new director, Rohan Mehra who is actor Vinod Mehra’s son. “It is a stock market thriller where I play a Gujarati businessman,” he says. Sacred Games, a web series based on Vikram Chandra’s eponymous novel and an unnamed film with director, Nitin Kakkar are also lined up.
Khan pursues an eclectic set of activities. “I go on a holiday, hang out in Pataudi, read, listen to music or do an online course. I did an interesting one on Buddhism recently. I can make an art form of doing nothing. I need to work because philosophically we need a reason to be and that is work,” he says and adds, “I’d prefer to work for half the year and not for the rest. So we can look forward to some more movies from the actor.
