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After hamming his worst in Sajid Khan’s Humshakals, Saif Ali Khan is back in his suave best in Happy Ending. The actor, who is best remembered for his supporting acts in Dil Chahta Hai, Omkara and mostly Kal Ho Naa Ho has mostly steered clear from playing supporting leads in films anymore. Even in Go Goa Gone, the actor had an extended cameo but was one of the film’s funniest bits despite little screen presence.
In an interview with Koimoi, Saif told us that collaborating with Aamir Khan or Shah Rukh Khan isn’t suicidal but won’t exactly take his career further. SRK and Saif had the most sparkling on screen bromance. They ruled the Filmfare Awards anchoring for years with their funny antics together. And mostly they were the original Dostana couple from Kal Ho Naa Ho. But Saif seems particularly queasy about starring in a SRK film. He explained very carefully, “To collaborate with Shah Rukh Khan would mean playing a small role in a big film which stars him in the lead space. Atleast usually it would mean that. I would rather play a main role in an Illuminati film. I don’t think I would get a role like Kal Ho Naa Ho again. That was almost my movie. And hence, working with SRK won’t happen. Actors want to play main role. It took me a lot of work to come out of playing second lead, so I don’t want to go back to it.”
There are many such people Saif hasn’t worked again with. Even Vishal Bhardwaj, whose Haider was the most valiant film this year, gave Saif a confidence boost by extracting from him Omkara‘s Langda Tyagi. Saif is still open to working with Vishal. He says, “We keep talking and he is a wonderful director. If I have to work with Vishal, then he has to write something that will take us beyond Omkara. People will compare us with the last one. It doesn’t have to better but has to be as good and yet something different.”
Of these, the strongest association remains with Farhan Akhtar, who brought out the his cool dude image brilliantly in the cult film Dil Chahta Hai. Amongst Saif’s next few projects, there is a film with Excel Entertainment which Farhan and Ritesh Sidhwani are producing. 13 years ago, playing a third lead was easier for Saif clearly but not anymore. He explained, “In Farhan’s film, I played a third lead which became a very popular role. Now if Farhan has a role for me, it will happen. I am working with Excel Entertainment for a film but Reema Kagti’s directing it, not Farhan. I would love to work with him sometime. May be the kind of films he is making, were more suited to others.”
But production is what his heart is stuck on. He and Dinesh Vijan have brought Hollywood’s look and appeal in Happy Ending which already looks like a hit. Starring Saif along with Ileana DCruz and Kalki Koechlin, along with Govinda, the film is a lighthearted take on the tough times surrounding love and romance.
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