All grown up

At the ripe, young age of 39, Saif Ali Khan says he's become a more discerning actor. The star talks about being a private person and why you'll never see him on twitter

YOU don't often wait nervously for an interview with Saif Ali Khan because he's a chilled-out kind of actor, the type who enjoys talking about everything under the sun. Yet this interaction is a bit different he's having an intense, heated production exchange over script details with his business partner out on the balcony of his office and you're selfishly wondering whether it's hara kiri for your interview if Saif is in a bad mood. After all, you've already read in the morning papers that he's recovering from a bout of food poisoning.u00a0

Once he's back in the room though, Saif switches off the frown, smiles and says, "Sorry about that, let's go ahead." It's a bit disorientating, yet as you struggle to read the scribbled questions in your notepad, Saif calmly thinks them through. In grey sweat pants and a black T-shirt, he lies down full length across the sofa, rests the dictaphone on his chest and talks lazily about playing a terrorist in Kurbaan and producing this year's big hit Love Aaj Kal.


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You were under the weather recently?

I just had a bad case of food poisoning, but it gets dramatic every time I go into hospital. It's a bit pathetic. I'm not the only person to have food poisoning.

You've said you can't resist bhel puri. Was it a bad case of bhel puri?

A bad case of oysters in Dubai where I was promoting Kurbaan. I'm going to smaller centres in India next week, like Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Delhi.

u00a0This must be a nicer film promotion because you're travelling with your girlfriend Kareena Kapoor.
Not to the smaller centres, she just comes for the more glamorous ones (laughs). I'm joking! She's actually off to Australia to shoot for the Stepmom remake.

You're back in a character with shades of grey in Kurbaan, playing a terrorist.

Well, it's a grey movie. In the second half, we wear grey and blue so the film looks cold and steely. I've made the movie sound a bit documentary in other interviews, but Kurbaan is primarily a love story with a thriller backdrop.

A love story shows how strongly you're bonded to your partner, through situations that test your character and morality. Kurbaan shows whether or not Ehsaan and Avantika's love survives in the backdrop of terrorism. What if you marry somebody and you had no idea what they do?

Kurbaan is a mature movie. There are elements of fundamentalism, but there's also the voice of moderate Islam. It's not a simple movie with a simple end. It's not a laugh-a-minute, leave-your-brains-at-home movie.

Audiences have loved you in negative roles in Ek Haseena Thi, Being Cyrus and Omkara. Do you enjoy these parts?

There was a journalist who pointed it out to me yesterday it's the ability to humanise the villainous roles and make them almost heroic. I've been a fan of actors like Alain Delon. Everybody is drawn to that kind of person.

Girls like bad boys!

Ehsaan's role is also strong and clear. I'm done playing positive or negative roles that are confused. I hate them. There's an age for that sort of thing. The charm of being confused is when you're young.
You reportedly gave the idea for the Kurbaan poster. How do feel now, seeing you and Kareena half-naked everywhere?

Not really, it happened when we were doing the scene. I said, "This could be the poster." Director Rensil (D'Silva) liked it. It's the perfect poster it advertises the relationship between the two. It generates the hype. It's not just shock value. It looks like an intense love story.

You have explicit love scenes in Kurbaan with your real-life girlfriend. Is it more comfortable or do you feel people can see into your relationship?

Both, actually. It's easier. I wish I could say it would be as easy with anybody. People will have a look into our relationship. I'm conscious of that voyeuristic angle, but acting is what we do. The scenes fit the palette of the film. It's realistic and natural.

Since Love Aaj Kal, what have you been up to, apart from basking in its success?

I haven't been basking, I've been prepping for our next production Agent Vinod. (Grins) Well, I've been basking a bit, I'm allowed. Please check, but I've heard that Love Aaj Kal is the second biggest opening of all time. I'm happy. I don't think any film is a safe bet these days. You have to make them with conviction. Nobody gets it right all the time.

I went on a holiday after Love Aaj Kal, but I do that often. I like to get away from it all. Now I'm training, chilling, prepping and then shooting for Agent Vinod.

And Race 2?

That (producer) Ramesh Taurani has to organise. He's getting the script done. It's pretty exciting.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
Julia Roberts stayed at the Pataudi Palace recently. Kareena told us she wanted to meet her, but you said no.
Kareena wasn't really around at the point, but yes, she is a big fan of Julia Roberts and is doing Stepmom.

But I do believe actors like their space. The best thing to do for them if they're staying with you is to leave them alone. I think my father saw her in the garden. I assume she'd be like us if we're shooting in (heritage hotel) Neemrana, we don't really want to have dinner with the hosts. I don't like to intrude. It's intrusive when we're asked to pose for pictures with people.

Over the years, do you find interviews easier to do?

I believe once in a while I do a brilliant interview and the rest of the time, I'm average. I like to be honest and say what I feel. So you can't give 30 great interviews in a day. It's repetitive and exhausting.

Your mother Sharmila Tagore wrote a lovely, heartfelt letter to you in a magazine this month.

It was really funny because I thought she had written it to me when I got a copy of it. I wondered, first of all, why it was typewritten. Secondly, I thought it was touching. Kareena read it and was very moved. But I felt it was a tiny bit superficial as a letter from her to me, considering she hasn't written me one in a long time! When I realised it was for publication, I understood why it wasn't as personal.

So it was amusing, but sweet. I felt it was a bit private, because I don't like to share so much.

Yes, she's written about your school days in England, which you don't talk much about.

People who know me closely know it was an important period. I feel as if I saw a different side of life. I gained a lot of value for many thingsu00a0 the way we approached sports or learning to respect tradition. The peer pressure was so positive. Nobody thought smoking was cool. It wasn't a parental nightmare. There were no drugs. It was a good world to grow up in.

There's also a baby picture of you in the magazine with a glass held out very Oliver Twist, 'Please, may I have some more?'

Well, I think I look more like Damien (from Omen). I did do stuff like climbing out on ledges when I was a kid. Neither of my kids are as naughty as I was. Ibrahim is averagely naughty. Sara is more like me, mentally. I was pretty bright, but she's an A+ student.

Ibrahim did one scene as young Saif in Tashan. Does he want to act any more?

No, he's very disturbed that Tashan didn't do well (grins). He doesn't like talking about it.

Have you seen your sister Soha's film Tum Mile?

No, not yet. I don't even watch TV so I haven't seen the trailors. She fell ill during the shoot it was in dirty water and there were some rats around apparently.

She was asked about marriage and she said she's waiting for you and Saba.

That makes sense she is the youngest! We're all waiting for Saba to get married first. I've already done that once, so now, all in good time (smiles).

Why aren't you on Twitter?

Because I don't believe in letting things be known. I don't like to update. I'd like my production house Illuminati to be linked to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. The advantage is that it creates a community and you know how people are feeling. But on Twitter, some people write, 'Sachin scored a hundred' or 'I just went to the loo'.

That's a bit much, isn't it (laughs)?

There should be a distance between you and your fans they discover you through your movies. Not everybody needs to know what you're thinking or who you are. It's not my scene. I don't want that. I'm not that social.

Islam and I

"Islam as a religion has come under a bit of a cloud of violence and terrorism. Any kind of stereotyping is frightening to me. It depends on how you were brought up. In my family and school, we were always taught to question and not just to follow. Religion should be respected. It's certainly nothing to go to war about. Yet from the dawn of time, people have done that.

"Man's basic nature is belligerent. Men fight with their wives all the time, forget countries. Men have issues! The abnormal situation would be when we're not at war with somebody. God and economics are major reasons to fight.

"The point is, you must differentiate between a good Muslim and a psychopathic terrorist. To me, Islam is a voice of peace and submission, with beautiful poetry and cleanliness. Islam has nothing to do with killing anyone. Anyone doing that, to me, is not a good Muslim. Kurbaan voices that."u00a0

What I'm reading

"It's The Enchantress Of Florence by Salman Rushdie. There's this bit about two prostitutes going to meet Akbar one is so fat that she's called The Mattress and the other so thin, she's The Skeleton. There's this bit where a man is anointed in different oils to get through different guards. The perfumes evaporate until the best one attracts Akbar. The idea's pretty far out!

"The Satanic Verses was fantastic. Rushdie has nice titles, like The Moor's Last Sigh. He has an amazing mind; the books are so descriptive. I enjoyed the language in Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov), described as a "violin in a void". I remember the beginning, 'Lo-lee-ta', and how the word trips off the top of his mouth.

"I love Umberto Eco. Try reading The Island Of The Day Before; it's an easy read. I've read his The Name Of The Rose and Baudolino. I couldn't read Foucault's Pendulum, it was too heavy.

I prefer books to the movies it deals with sensations and mental images. In films, you have to show everything. The book happens in your mind."u00a0u00a0u00a0