Ass Saif Ali Khan Gearing up for Netflix cop drama ‘Kartavya’, the actor looks back at the unlikely beginning of his journey in police uniform, a 1994 comedy that he adapted from a Hollywood film and was told by a director that he would never pull off a serious cop role. But the journey between those two points, as Saif recently revealed in a candid interview, is anything but a straight line. A blatantly copied Hollywood film, a sharp director, years of doubt and the beginning of it all, it involves a runaway horse and Sunil Dutt going to the rescue.
Saif Ali Khan opens itChief Khiladi Tu Anari ‘
Before ‘Sacred Games’ and ‘Kartavya’, there was ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’, a 1994 comedy where Saif Ali Khan donned a police uniform for the first time. As he explained, he wasn’t really playing the police.Speaking to Dainik Jagran, Khan said, “The first time I wore a police uniform was in the 90s in a comedy film. I was playing an actor who was supposed to play a cop. So he studies. Akshay Kumarwho was playing a policeman in the movie. It was a funny movie that we copied from an American movie without taking any rights. We just lifted the American film The Hard Way and copied it.’For context, ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’, directed by Sameer Malkan, was taken from the 1991 Michael J. Fox and James Woods buddy comedy in which an actor shadows a detective for a role. The Hindi version transplanted the premise with Akshay Kumar as a no-nonsense cop and Saif as a movie star learning the ropes. It was a box office hit and is fondly remembered, although its source material was never formally credited.
Saif Ali Khan was haunted by the dire advice of the director
What stuck with Saif from that film was not the box office numbers, but what his director said off camera.“My director told me, ‘Don’t ever play a cop. It’s a very serious thing. Big stars with a lot of presence play cops. You do romantic comedies, don’t play a cop,'” Khan revealed.This comment seeped into Khan’s psyche and stayed there for years, quietly coloring every police role he took on thereafter.“That fear always remained. Later, when I started playing cops, I think until Sacred Games, I always felt like maybe I couldn’t pull it off. I grew up in this business. I’ve spent more time in my life on camera than off. People have seen me from 20 to 55, for better or for worse. Fortunately, there have been some changes. I’ve grown up, and now being able to play a cop is huge for me because that director used to laugh at me and say, ‘Don’t ever do it,'” Khan revealed.It is ironic that ‘Sacred Games’, Saif’s 2018 Netflix series in which he played Mumbai cop Sartaj Singh, turned out to be one of the highlights of his career. The role completely redefined public perception, and after decades in the industry, he received critical acclaim that he felt was truly earned.
About ‘Kartavya’
‘Kartavya’ hits Netflix on May 15 and marks Saif’s return to police uniform in a markedly different entry from Sacred Games. Directed by Pulkit and produced by Gauri Khan under Red Chillies Entertainment, the film follows a police officer who navigates the harrowing tension between duty, conscience and the personal cost of every decision he makes, against a tight investigative backdrop that explores issues of justice, morality and consequences.The cast includes Rasika Dugal, Zakir Hussain, Sanjay Mishra, Saurabh Dwivedi and Manish Chaudhari.
