Bazaar: Saif Ali Khan opens up on his character Shakun Kothari
Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan will next be seen in "Baazaar", which is based in stock market with a mentor-protege relationship as its spine and he dubs the film as the rise of the anti-hero. Saif plays a seasoned stock trader, Shakun Kothari, who unlike his previous suave-oozing roles, is a "bit crass in places".
"There might be a little grace to the character. I think when I was a kid I used to watch Alain Delon movies. He was the best looking guy that's ever been. This French actor used to play these slightly darker roles but he used to give it a little style and in my head I thought, that's cool. I've always been slightly intrigued by darkness more than the light side of things.
"I find light to be misleading or boring. But as one gets old, even light needs strength to be reflected or to play Ram or to play a hero properly. You have to tap into different things. It's just something I enjoy. I actually wouldn't mind cornering the market (of anti-hero). It would be good fun to be known as that. Whereas earlier, people used to be like 'Oh, you are playing negative roles'. Now, it's becoming more grey."
Besides "Baazaar", the actor will also be seen in period drama "Tanaaji: The Unsung Hero" alongside Ajay Devgn, who plays the title role.
Saif is reportedly set to play Udaybhan Rathod, the Rajput officer and fortkeeper appointed by Jai Singh, chief of the Mughul army under Aurangzeb.
He says the kind of roles he has been finding are some negative roles, but he believes they are actually anti-heroes.
"'Tanaaji' director said, 'You're like Imran Khan or Shahid Afridi. It's like you are the cricket captain of Pakistan. You're amazing but you're on the wrong side."
And yet his filmography finds space for a struggling, good cop, Sartaj Singh in "Sacred Games". The actor is floored by the reviews of the show and is excited for the second run of the Netflix India original.
The audience ate right out of Nawazuddin Siddiqui's Ganesh Gaitonde for channelling the character's in-your-face assurance and notoriety and Saif remembers having an argument with director Vikramaditya Motwane on why was his Sartaj "so passive"?
"I felt like he's getting slapped by everybody. What's happening? Some second rate thug Bunty is jhaaping him. I got irritated. But it takes time. And if you see the show and I saw it much later... I asked him, 'Are you sure you want me to do this role because this other guy has such a fun colour?' and I was told that those things are true but we have seen that before.
"So I said to myself that 'just be confident'. Sartaj is a fascinating character. He's holding the show forward. Technically, the show is not moving forward without him. He is the soul and grounds it. And then, you need something to believe in otherwise everyone can be immoral," he says.
The actor says it has been a different role for him in terms of responsibility.
"The idea was not to get tensed that the other guy is seeming to get all the attention but just more attention. And on a deeper level, and enough journalists have said it to me to get my justification -- that it is Sartaj's show.
"He could have easily been this gun-toting cop but he's not. He's screwed on every level in his personal life. He's trying to commit suicide, maybe by drinking the drain cleaner. Everyone is hitting and punching him, he's so down. Perhaps that's what made us feel that he's different. I think the fact that I did it and did it quite willing to get slapped made a difference."
Saif also has projects such as Navdeep Singh's "Hunter" in which he plays a Naga sadhu and family comedy "Jawaani Jaaneman", which he will also co-produce.
Also starring debutante Rohan Mehra, Chintrangda Singh and Radhika Apte, "Baazaar" releases Friday.
(With PTI Inputs)
