Saif Ali Khan Interview

Q.1.What do you think about the music of Tashan
I think it’s a great album, it’s got varied amount of music because I think our director is also like that. It’s a classic Hindi film in the sense that after a long time there is a film that covers a wide range of commercial kind of emotions. Its also very modern and contemporary in terms of there is a song like Dil Dance Maare which I think is a great song ,almost funny but at the same time quite hip. There is this really romantic number Falak which I think is a wonderful song there is also Dil Haara which is my song which I think is also very romantic, quite sufi and intense. Kareena’s solo song Challiya I think is also very cool, I love the lyrics so over all it’s a great album really nice and different

Q.2. What was it about this film that made you decide to do it
Actually it’s quite funny, the first time I heard it Victor narrated it to me over one an a half hour in Adi Chopra’s study and I said no because I didn’t understand some parts, I am not very good with narrations, I would rather read a script so I was told to take the script home and read it and I loved it and I started laughing by head off at 2am in the morning at some of the dialogues because I just thought it was a very unpredictable movie, it’s a classic kind of a Hindi film story in a way but at the same time the treatment is so different with a lot of new technique but the basic plot is a classic revenge story but it doesn’t look like it because it starts of as a love story and moves into a road movie and then goes into a full on revenge drama so that was exciting and also very funny. It was the script in reading it that made me want to be a part of it. It’s definitely going to be the hottest film of the year.

Q.3.The look in the film is really appreciated can you tell me something about it
I think it was the title Tashan which required everybody to have a little bit of Tashan like the red belt which my character wears through out the film, the kind of moustache that he has and the haircut everyone is a little off in the movie but at the same time like I said that’s the film everyone has a Tashan,everyone is a little bit off so this was the look.Aki Narula came up with some really nice clothes like Cargo’s and T-shirts and decided that I would never wear jeans, slightly an off kind of guy but without being wierd so there is this fine line which I think was very nicely handled.

Q.4.Can you tell us something about the character you play
I am playing this guy called Jimmy by the way his name sounds that he is a bit of an odd character. He has had a strange sort of childhood where his father used to dress him up in white clothes like Jeetendra and make him dance publicly so as a result of that he is a little bit off, works in a call center, very romantic, lives alone and despite the fact that he is usually picking up chicks from the call center and he feels that normally the unintelligent kind of a woman that he attracts falls desperately in love with the Kareena Kapoor character and ends up with his life turning into utter hell which in the end actually turns out to be the best adventure he has ever been on and I think that’s what films are about to me and that’s what makes a film like Tashan extremely special because unlike a lot of hindi films, its about what we lack the most in our lives, which is adventure and that’s why we go to the movies to enter another world and to be carried away into this kind of a rollercoaster of getting shot at and being in lots of trouble, finding love and loosing it, money, gunfights. It was good fun

Q.5. How was your experience working with Vijay Krishna Acharya
Victor is a great man, he is a loyal friend and he is an old school kind of a staunch gentleman in many ways but also when you look at him in his moustache he is a little off in terms of he is very keen on not being mundane so his film is also unpredictable and his brief to us as actors personally we got along very well, he makes me laugh from the bottom of my heart, its like therapeutic to sit with him because he really does we have a big laugh because neither of us take ourselves too seriously we share quite a unique bond I think, he understands me, expects the best from me and brings out the best also and I like to give it to him. I think of him as a bit of a mentor and I somehow confess all my sins to him the second I see him which is nice to trust him that way and as a director he would just usually tell me to surprise him and to not let it be expected kind of what the character Is going to do next even the lines that are coming out of the mouth should look like they are just happened and weren’t prepared for so that’s an interesting brief so he’s a cool guy and he’s made a very cool film.

Q.6.What according to you is your Tashan Factor
I think as an actor I would like to think that I try and play things naturally and not really try and play hero but to try and play a character and let the situation decide whether he is heroic or not. and the Tashan of anything would be no matter how many times you are doing it, to make it look like its been done for the first time ever. That moment should be real I suppose that’s what Tashan is. My cowboy boots is my Tashan.

Q.7.Can you tell us something about your experience shooting for the song Dil Haara
I have this tendency to go on a holiday during Christmas and New Year and since I work with Adi Chopra so often he knows this. Christmas and New year is a good time to eat and drink so one tends to put on a little bit of weight and Adi said he wants this song to be the item of the movie and he wants to shoot it in Greece and big and in his exact words “If you are going to party over New year’s and Christmas and come back looking like a Papa I will shoot the song in Bombay on some set and I will be very disappointed” so unfortunately I had to starve for the greater part of my trip to Hong Kong while I don’t think it is a six pack which is a bit much to expect but I will get there soon I tried, I did lose a fair amount of weight and I ended up looking good and they were happy because they are use to seeing me quite fat and they shot it at this beautiful Greek island called Milos, it’s a beautiful island which has underwater caves but ofcourse being a movie we ended up going there in the middle of winter and worked in freezing cold weather in the water so it was hellishly torturing in that sense. We had some great dancers, Aki Narula styled it really well, Shot fantastically well by Bose one of the most talented cameraman I have worked with and Viabhavi in fine form. I think everyone was quite happy at the end of it.

Q.8.Can you tell us something about your experience working with Vaibhavi Merchant
Vaibhavi is great I have been watching her for a long time I have been working with her on and off for a while. I think one of her first film was with us, she use to assist Chinni Prakash at one point years ago. We have all been around. She is great and lots of fun to work with, and thoroughly professional and expects you to give your best and so does she and I think she is quite happy also with this song I think after a long time we have got something quite special together.

Q.9.How was the experience working in an action film with Peter Hinne
I have a Tashan war wound which happened to me while kicking a can in the middle of an action sequence with Peter who I love. On the set he just gets one into the mood to do great stuff. I would love to work with him again. The action in the film is much larger than life, it’s like comic book action, its bigger its not just a few gunshots its like thousand bullets going off and cars skidding on fire using cables, its great fun, very exhausting and everyone getting banged up and hurt everyday which is what it is about. I love action films, love watching them, love working in them. Haven’t worked with Akshay Kumar in a while but there is bound to be a bit of action unless we do one of those slightly romantic films together which I am happy we didn’t do.

Q.10 Any one memorable incident during the shoot of the film
I had rented an Enfield in Ladak I use to ride it to work everyday .It was one of the most exhilarating and liberating experiences of my life. It’s a very beautiful countryside up there so some good music on the headphones and riding the bike was fantastic. It was a great one month schedule.

Q.11 You are sporting a moustache for the first time? What was it like and would you like to have one?
I think I would, i enjoyed the moustache, I was a little uncomfortable with it initially I thought it looked funny but then I grew into it quite well and I have seen a lot of people now with a similar kind of a moustache, that goti its fun. I would like to keep a heavy stubble and longer hair

Q.12.What is it like working in a multi starrer film as opposed to a solo film
You get to get a little bit worked up about what the other person is doing which is always exciting. I always enjoyed a multi starrer when I was a kid. I think if you are confident what your role is it doesn’t really matter infact sometimes it’s a bit more fun to work off other peoples energies, I think Akshay and I have a tremendous complimentary sort of quality with each other because we come from different worlds on films so it’s interesting when you put us together, it always has been with different body types, with different screen presences we work very well off each other its like Terrance Hill and Bud Spencer kinds one shorter guy and one taller kind, so its an interesting pad.I like to work in films that I like to watch so it really does not make a difference.

Q.13.What the experience working with Anil Kapoor
Anil Kapoor is not only one of the most talented actors I have ever worked with he is also one of the least selfish and most giving I think he is at a point in his career where he is sharing so much of wisdom and he is so positive. He is one of the most positive people I know and he considers working in films a privilege, which it is. He feels that if you are working in like 80 degrees heat and you have to wear a suit he say’s don’t think about it you are lucky you have got the job and it’s great. He is super to work with and you learn a lot from him. He is very professional.

Q.14. What the experience working with Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar has become one of the best actors when I worked with him first he use to say that you do the acting and I will do the action but now I think he is doing both almost better then anyone else. A remarkable sense of comedy and acting, I haven’t worked with him in a while and I really enjoyed it this time and I am dying to see what It looks like. It’s always great and we compete quite seriously with each other, which is really good.He makes up things sometimes that is not in the script even so it drives me mad and then I would make up things that is not in the script and then eventually we get a good scene or we just start doing shit and the director says what’s going on but its always fun.

Q.15. What the experience working with Kareena Kapoor
Working with Kareena it’s the first time after LOC. It was great she is really good, very easy to work with, and very spontaneous she kind of moulds herself to whichever actor she is working with I think I have noticed. If you want to rehearse she rehearses if you don’t then that’s fine too.