THE GLOBAL ACTOR AND GENTLEMAN…. SAIF ALI KHAN
‘When the offer came, I thought it would be interesting to export a different aspect of our culture. I thought it would be cool to have a story around the Indian mafia, it would have a kind of pop romance associated with it, because of the way we interrogate our prisoners, the whole system, the whole chaos of India; I thought it would export well as a story’
We are stealing Saif’s time from his ongoing shoot in London, a light-hearted movie which is a welcome break after a long stint shooting as the cop Sartaj for the web series, Sacred Games. It’s summer time, holiday season, and we imagine his family rushes to greet him once his shooting for the day is done. When he comes on the phone, Saif is generous with his views, sounding every bit a product of Britain and royal India, with his wry sense of humour, modesty and candour. Over to the man of the moment…
A NEW UNIVERSE
Sacred Games as a series, appears to be a gamechanger both for your audiences, and for you as an actor. What kind of preparation went into becoming Sartaj?
“Apart from being a Punjabi kind of cop, there is a certain body language I had to imbibe. In the first season, Sartaj was a bit of a loser, he was a bit overweight and kind of out of it. And then after things start heating up, he becomes a bit more like he is in the book; fitter, smarter, kinder and sharper. To create that kind of arc, the kind of academic preparation was pretty intense. I had to get the Punjabi accent right.. Those words are, ‘troubled and honest.’ Everything he does is through that lens. Troubled is but natural if you see not too many honest people around yourself.”
