Saif Ali Khan sits comfortably on a corner of her luxury trailer parked inside the gates of the iconic Mehboob Studios in Mumbai. It is dressed in a crisp white kurta, a copy of Anna Karenina by Tolstoy in his lap as his BlackBerry buzzes. He greets me, he puts your phone on silent, dog-eared a page, and is set to speak.
“I’m limping through it. I’m on page 500, so hopefully I’ll be finished soon,” he says, as I point out in the book, which, incidentally, inspired the name of his wife, actress Kareena Kapoor.
“I recently made a list of classics that have not read. As actors, we have plenty of time on our hands between shots. And the traffic in Bombay shit. So, instead of looking out the window hoping that no other cars on the road, I like to read. ”
The list currently has about 100 books.
“There are also autobiographies, like Gandhi and Hitler. But I want to get to next Wuthering Heights. It’s amazing how women came up with all these stories that live in the middle of nowhere,” he says, referring to author Emily Bronte and Her Sisters.
After 23 years in the movie business, Khan, 45, is now in a position where I can take stock and reflect on his career. Right now, in the scale of satisfaction, he says he is the “average down”.
“Last year was not very successful,” he says. “But I have seen ups and downs, so I know how it works.”
Two versions of Khan last year failed at the box office and one of them, Humshakals, has often been referred to as one of the worst films ever made in India.
“I feel a great satisfaction when I make a hit movie or a good scene,” he says thoughtfully. “I do not know if what I’m doing is a pioneer, but then I do not know if the Indian cinema is-way split. From time to time you do a Langda Tiyagi (his character in the acclaimed 2006 film Omkara) and hit the nail in the head, and sometimes makes it a beautiful love story. But I feel I am doing the most movies that happen in my life? No.
“But again, I know I’ve given my best. I love my wife, my friends and children and family and know that everything in my life is defined by my work in movies. So I’m very grateful.”
The key to successful films, he says, is to work with a director who knows what the public wants. And think Kabir Khan, the man behind the release of this weekend, Phantom, it does.
The previous film Kabir Khan, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, which announced last month, has broken box office records in India and is a great success internationally.
“I really want people to come and see this film so Kabir has to say,” says Khan.
In Phantom, who heads an elite group of murderers who are sent worldwide on a covert mission to kill the leaders of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The film is based in Mumbai Avengers, a book by Hussain Zaidi, who has also written the script.
“It is the role of a strong hero. I’ve played a lot of gray characters in the past. But this man is a full-on hero,” he says. “After making a successful film, the greatest gift you get is free to make any movie you want. Kabir wanted to do this movie and I could have thrown no one else wanted me. That was a great compliment. Then when he told me, I said yes immediately. I had no doubts. “
