He was the confused youngster in Dil Chahta Hai; a menacing villain in Omkara; a zombie hunter in Go Goa Gone; and most recently the amiable but low-on-confidence Sartaj Singh in Sacred Games, the Netflix adaptation of the book by the same name. Saif Ali Khan has gone beyond Bollywood’s definition of the archetypal hero and how, focusing on the character rather than the length or significance of his role. Whether his films work or not, he is comfortable in his skin, which shows through when we meet him at a suburban studio. Dressed in a white kurta-pajama, he sits with an air of nonchalance. He pauses before speaking, but is always sure, unlike Sartaj Singh, a cop who has hit rock bottom in his career.
Sacred Games—the second season will stream on August 15—has been the cleverest decision of Saif’s career by his own admission. He was the first among top stars to embrace the digital medium. While many people from the industry see the streaming service as a way to end the monopoly of big producers, Saif says he sees it as an extension of entertainment. “I have always been a commercial actor. I love doing movies,” he says. “I am just excited to be the villain of Tanhaji and the hero of Jawaani Jaaneman and Laal Kaptaan and I am excited to play Sartaj Singh in the Netflix show as well. So, I am just an actor. I see no difference. I do not see one thing as a come-down or another as a come-up. It is all great.”
No wonder he does not like the way things are labelled or boxed in—“a Netflix show, that is a TV show, this is a streaming service, or this is a film”. While there used to be a “class difference” between different mediums or platforms, that is not true anymore, says Saif. “At least, it is not true when it comes to cinema for large screen and Netflix,” he says. “If anything, the Netflix environment is smarter and pushing boundaries with more graphic [scenes]. When I say graphic, I mean artistically graphic visuals, and it is a brilliant environment to be in.” And, the crossover has been both ways. “The understanding that if you are doing a show means you are not getting cinematic work has changed,” he says. He cites the example of Tom Hardy, whose choices have blurred the boundaries between hero and villain, cinema and shows. “He is the best way to see oneself these days,” he says. “I think we are in a renaissance period right now after the extreme lows of the 1980s and 1990s.”
And, he is actually living up to his words. A day before we met, the poster of Laal Kaptaan had released. Saif, who for a considerable part of 2018 donned locks and a dense, long beard at many an event and interview, looks menacing on the poster. A revenge drama directed by Navdeep Singh, the film has him as a cool, bandana-wearing Naga sadhu. His son, Ibrahim, and sister-in-law Karisma Kapoor’s son, Kiaan, thought he looked like Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean. He doesn’t mind the comparison. He is just delighted with the warm response pouring in. “It is like gardening. You do something a while ago and it fruits nicely and it is always great,” he says.
As for Sartaj Singh, Saif had, in an interview during the promotion of the first season, said that he was not initially comfortable with the role, which required him to speak Punjabi and put on weight. “Did I say that?” he asks. “I cannot remember saying that. But then I do not remember many things that I say.” He has become quite comfortable with the character now, he adds. “If you keep playing someone for long you get used to it,” he says, adding that it is a really well-written part—“one of the best written material I have had in my career so far.”
Saif’s career has not been linear. In his three-decade-old journey, he has often reinvented himself—from the dancing hero of the 1990s, to the multiplex hero in the noughties, and the experimental one in the 2010s—often proving the cynics wrong. “If you are around long enough, then fashions change. You have to go with the flow and try and do things. But generally, you do the best with what you are offered. Cinema just reflects the changing zeitgeist.”
The lows in his career, he says, have not affected him emotionally. “I just love acting. So I just try getting better and better at it and that’s it,” he says. The most important thing, he says, is confidence. “And my sense of confidence comes from somewhere that is not dependent on the box-office. It is about what kind of a person I am and what my outlook is and what kind of an actor I am and if I see that on screen. So I live moment to moment as an actor. It is not really based on anything else other than something inside of me.”
The actor, who is getting back to producing films after almost five years with Jawaani Jaaneman, says that production is not something he really enjoys the most. But it is something that gives him an opportunity to be more than just an actor, and that process he enjoys. He has a couple of productions lined up, including a sequel to Go Goa Gone, and there is nothing more he can ask for. “I am busy,” he says, “and I am happy.”