They called him a “brat” with the very first film he signed. He was the son of

Talking about Saif Yash Chopra He was very young and not so serious about his work when he worked with me in Parampara. He is a much more mature man now and the way he has grown as an actor is surprising. He is at his best now. He must take up best opportunities and make the best of them. I am sure he will come up with his best. I have always hoped for the best for him. I still see hope for him. Sooraj Barjatya I liked working with him in Hum Saath Saath Hai. He is a natural actor who needs to work a little more seriously on himself. I would like to work with him again if and when the time comes. Aamir Khan All Saif Ali Khan needs is to take himself seriously as an actor. He is good, everyone knows it by now. I don’t see any reason why he should not be considered a serious actor who can do serious roles. Actors like Saif need good directors who can draw out the best from them. Some day I would like to direct this lively actor. Kundan Shah He is a very genuine actor. It is his image that has gone against him. He will have to work hard if he has to be ranked among the good actors. He is very natural in my film Kya Kehna!. If you ask me this is just the beginning of a great career but seriousness is a must. See Kya Kehna! and see the difference between this Saif and the Saif in some of his other films. Anupam Kher The actor has first to take himself seriously. I think everyone must be saying the same about him because he is so good and yet he has not found the place he deserves. I have worked with him in Kya Kehna! and with every scnee I could see the growth of a new Saif. Soon people are going to forget the old Saif because a new one is about to be born. Divya Dutta I have not worked with him in a full-fledged role till now. But I have seen his sincerity in his work. All he needs is some concentration and some more hard work. The competition among the actors is very tough. He must toughen himself to fight all the fights that will come in his way. He will be a winner one day. Rekha One boy I certainly would like to see as a success. He has to succeed. He has his mother’s genes, his father’s distinction and his own destiny which I am sure will take him far, soon.

distinguished father, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (the legendary Nawab of Pataudi and a legend of the game of cricket). And the still-so gorgeous Sharmila Tagore, the actress who ruled the 60s and 70s just by flashing her dimples. They also called him the ‘Chote Nawab’ in all those gossip rags.

Director Rahul Rawail played one of his clever games when he teamed up the ‘Chote Nawab’ and Kajol, the daughter of the one-time fascinating, lively actress, Tanuja. The launching of Rahul’s film Bekhudi was a major event which aroused the curiosity of the entire industry. It was like a family get together at RK Studios. But I can distinctly remember one scene, the ever-jolly, full-of-life Tanuja standing all alone in a corner and crying her heart out with what can only be called a bag full of mixed feelings.

Rahul started shooting and within no time there was trouble brewing. The director couldn’t get along with the flamboyant ways of the ‘Chote Nawab’. A time came when he was forced to change his mind. He had the guts to drop Saif and replace him with an unknown actor called Kamal Sadanah. The ‘Chote Nawab’ had paid a very heavy price for being called “a brat”, “a spoilt child”, and “a bigada hua Chota Nawab” But royalty was in his blood. Royalty which made him agree that he had gone wrong and that he would stay back to make amends, change his ways, change himself and try his best to create a new Saif Ali Khan, a Khan who could prove that he could and would.

It was difficult. Time had taken that word “brat” and spread it all over. It was almost like a good case gone but Saif was determined to stay on. He gave himself lessons in moving with the times and the people he had to deal with if he had to stay around and prove once and for all that he was not “a brat”.

He vowed to fight back. He would not go back home like a cry baby. He would not surrender. He could have been many things, a millionaire, a big businessman, a cricketer, anyone he wanted but he had given his heart to acting. It took him time to realise that acting was not as easy as royalty. The industry too gave him time and later even gave him the opportunities to prove himself as an actor. Umesh Mehra was the first director to take the “risk”. He made Aashiq Awara with Saif and Mamta Kulkarni. He could act, he proved to whoever saw the film (And they were very few since the film didn’t do well). This new Saif proved that he had the sparks in him for the first time when Yash Chopra cast him in Parampara. It was a multi-starcast film. It was also one of those films which couldn’t do anything for anyone, forget Saif. But Saif was growing better with time, learning from all the experiences he came across. He was growing into a better actor with every role, even his directors agreed. He was growing in a world which rarely allows the rich and the royal to grow (`out of envy’)?

But that word “brat” refused to leave him. It almost became his second name. It almost lived with him, became a part of him when he created scenes which shocked the industry. How could the son of the Nawab of Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore beat up a journalist just because he had criticised his mother’s hairstyle when she was a leading lady? That was just one of the questions people asked while he created some more scenes.

And then he did what was least expected. He married Amrita Singh and naturally people talked about the marriage for days. Amrita was a name in herself. A name which gave people all kinds of images. She was “arrogant”, “fiery”, “foul-mouthed” “spoilt” (words I have picked up from some of the yellow rags which in a way are partly responsible for Saif not being the Saif Ali Khan he could have been today). The Saif and Amrita marriage was more a miracle than a marriage. All those who wondered and imagined the worst were shocked again when Amrita gave up her flourishing career and decided to spend all her time in bringing up Saif, both as husband and actor. Amrita turned out to be a very devoted teacher and a very loving, caring, understanding wife. The results were there to see soon after their marriage. The results were so good that Saif’s parents who, it is said, were initially against the marriage accepted Amrita as their bahu begum. There was happiness all around. And to add to their happiness, Saif and Amrita became parents “even before they could really grow up,” someone said. There was total bliss at home but Saif’s career was still not picking up. Not going the way the careers of the other boys in the game were going. In one of his talks at the Ummaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur where he was shooting for Sanjay Gupta’s Hamesha, he said: “I am not a part of the competition. I am happy competing with myself. I am happy growing and improving with every film that comes my way. My only problem right now is getting some good roles. I am interested in facing challenges which I feel is the only way to come up as an actor of calibre. I also need good directors who will take me seriously. Why do they still think of me as an actor who can only play the spoilt brat, the carefree Casanova, the vagabond, the man who has not grown and will not be allowed to grow? It hurts when a director comes up and says he wants you to play the same character again and again. If you ask me there is a lot of pain and agony and fun and games in the career I have chosen. That’s why I have chosen it. Believe me, give me an opportunity to act, to really act and I will show you that Saif is not here just for the fun and games. Saif proved he was good in films like Main Anari Tu Khiladi, Hamesha, Imtihaan, even Parampara. But he was at his best in Yeh Dillagi in which he was pitted against Akshay Kumar and Kajol. He turned up trumps, he had triumphed as an actor, at last.
Saif was literally in some seventh heaven when Sooraj Barjatya of all directors selected him to play one of the major characters in Hum Saath Saath Hain. And Saif said: “I know I will never get a break like this again. I am putting my whole life into it. My role in this film is frankly my answer to my prayers. It has come at the right time and I hope it does the right things for me. I am playing a complete Indian character for the first time which is quite new to me and I have Soorajji to guide me. What more can I ask for?” The film, however, surprised the industry when Sooraj couldn’t live up to the expectations he had aroused after his first two super-duper hits.

Strangely, Saif is now facing a situation which very few actors have faced. He is doing the last film he has officially signed, Kya Kehna! which will be released soon. He is playing Rahul, again, a rich Casanova, the kind of character he has been trying to avoid. But the film in totality and the director, Kundan Shan, inspired him to go for it. “True, I am playing the Casanova again but this Casanova is very different from all the other Casanovas I have played. It is a very strong role with a direction, a mission and a message. It is a very strong role and with a director like Kundan, I know I have nothing to worry. The film is very good according to me. The other performers are also good and I am better than I once was. I hope to God the film does well and I am accepted in a big way. I have to come up a winner this time. I just have to. How long can I go on making efforts to make people realise that I am determined to make it is an actor who they will have to accept one day?”

A talk with Saif facing his greatest test.....
How do you feel, Saif, on the eve of the release of the last film you have on hand? I have rarely seen such a drastic thing happening to an actor on the rise. An actor whose time has come. How do you feel, really?
I never realised what I would have to feel about a situation like this. I tried my best to make it as a good actor. I frankly feel that I succeeded too. But then I don’t know what went wrong. The good roles didn’t come to me. So I had no way to prove myself, to show how much I have improved as an actor. I am naturally tense, a little insecure, even a little scared. But I have decided not to lose hope in the worst of circumstances. Like I told you, I am an optimist. I always hope for the best. I will come back with Kya Kehna! It is one of the best films I have worked in. I hope my role as Rahul, Mr Casanova, who has a heart of gold will help me start a fresh new innings as an actor.

What kind of feelings grip you when all the other Khans, Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman and now even Hrithik Roshan and Aftab are making their way to the top and you are left behind?
I don’t sit and brood and curse my luck. I am not made like that. They have their careers, I have mine. They are doing very well now. I am very happy for them. But their success has, frankly, not made me a pessimist. I am an optimist. I believe my time will come. I have realised one truth in this industry and that is that every man’s time comes and till it comes one cannot do a thing about it. It is very mystifying and therefore very exciting.

You were first called a “brat”. They said you were no good for Hindi films. Then some filmmakers who had thought of making films with you dropped the idea or politely asked you to leave. How did you, the son of the Nawab of Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore, feel at such times?
It was painful, naturally. But it took me, a sensible young man (I think I am), a very short time to realise that this was all a part of the game. You had to win some, lose some. You just couldn’t go on winning all the time. You would be God otherwise. Everytime I was rejected or realised that I was thrown out my resolve to get better grew stronger. I decided to work harder, I decided to make it as an actor of a very different kind, made of tough material.

How do you feel when directors and critics call you, the actor of the masses, the actor who can only give loads of entertainment to the front-benchers, the whistlers, the so-called taporis. The Nawab’s son, a favourite of the taporis?
I came into the industry to give entertainment to as many people as possible. I was very happy when the masses accepted me as the entertainer they were waiting for since ages. I don’t mind if the men and women sitting to pass judgement come up with their learned opinions and call me names. I am more interested in the “kya kaam kiya hai, Saif Bhai ne”, the “dhamaal kiya hai Saif ne”, the “kitna cute hai, kitna handsome hai” kind of judgement. I believe that it is this judgement that finally makes or breaks an actor.

Do you think your looks, I mean your looking very young, prevents filmmakers from trying you in mature roles?
I am young. How can filmmakers who do not know my potential to portray any kind of character even at my age take me for granted just because I look young. Didn’t Mr. Anupam Kher play a 64-year-old man when he was just 26.

But do you have the confidence to play mature roles?
Let some one give me a chance and I can prove that I can play characters that will be remembered for long.

You say you are an optimist. How do you manage to be an optimist when things are not going very well for you?
That’s the sign of a good optimist and optimism is the only weapon with which you can fight your way through the rough road to success. I am willing to walk up any hill, however rough if I see even a glimmer of hope of my reaching success there. I am not the kind who give up or get frustrated. I love life and films is an essential part of my life. I don’t mind struggling like any other struggler to make it. There is no other way, I know. I thank God for making me an optimist. Or who knows what would happen to this man, Saif Ali Khan ?

Have you ever felt that the gossip magazines have played a part in keeping you down?
They have, they have, yes they have. There are times when they have made me a monster, a dragon, a woman-eater. “A spoilt brat”, that is one label that they have gifted to me, a gift I want to throw out as soon as I can, but can’t so easily. But I will not give up till I succeed in throwing that gift, that tag out. I am a responsible father, a loving husband, a loving son, a caring brother. How can they dare go on calling me a “brat”? I think it is time I did something about it.

What do you think of the role Amrita has played in your career?
I am very lucky to have a wife like Amrita. I was on the verge of going haywire when she came into my life. But everything changed the day, she walked in and we decided to become one. She is a complete wife, a great mother, a good guide. She is also a perfectionist. We make an ideal team. The fact that we have lived on and lived happily so long has proved it.

Who would you like to follow as an ideal if you get a new life after Kya Kehna!?
I first want Kya Kehna! to succeed. Not because of me so much, but because of all the efforts put in by the entire team. The good work of the team can not make a film like Kya Kehna! fail should not, the optimist in me says. About my ideal, I am too occupied with myself right now to think of ideals, though I have many high quality, ideals in different fields.

What if God forbid Kya Kehna! doesn’t prove to be a hit?
No, I can not do anything. I will stay on because I love this industry and its people with all their madness, with all their idiosyncrasies. No, I will not play cricket, I will not play any other game, I will not become a businessman or a politician. I will be in films and I will continue fighting it out because fighting to win is in my blood, a truth I am very proud of.

What after Kya Kehna!?
Kya keh sakte hai? Hum har vaar ke liye taiyar hai. Hum ladenge aur jeetenge. Yeh hamara vaada hai humse. There is no giving up. That is my only motto.

PS: What do you have in store for a man like Saif, dear luck?

What do you have in store for a man like Saif, dear destiny?
Or do you have something super, surprising, sensational as a gift for Saif waiting for success?

Ali Peter John