Mumbai: Actor Saif Ali Khan, in his three-decade-long career, survived the time because he collaborated with Akshay Kumar. The Tandav actor said that not being as big a star as Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan or Aamir Khan worked in his favour as he could do unconventional roles. In the 90s, Saif collaborated with Akshay on films such as Main Khiladi Tu Anari, Yeh Dillagi, Keemat, and Aarzoo, among others. Both the actors’ chemistry was loved by the people while solo superstars like SRK, Aamir Khan, and Salman Khan were giving back-to-back hits.
In an interview with Film Companion, he spoke about how he needed Akshay to complete him as an actor at the beginning of his career. He said, “If I was cute and fun in a lot of movies and I did a lot of work with Akshay Kumar, who perhaps lacked at that point, cute and fun, so we made a kind of super-person and found our way in the industry. I completed him and he completed me. I think that’s why we are so fond of each other till today. We realise we owe each other that, in a sense. Usually, a solo successful superstar like these guys (Shah Rukh, Salman, Aamir) don’t need someone to complete them.”
He also added that being less successful than SRK, Salman and Aamir worked in his favour. He added, “I have to say these guys Shah Rukh, Salman, and Aamir were kind of born somehow to be actors. I think it must have been a childhood ambition. Certainly, I know it was for two of them. I don’t know if it was Salman’s ambition anyway, but he was certainly built for it and made for the kind of success he saw. I joined movies at a time when you got to aim to either be a superstar or not bother. And there’s a point there. It wasn’t really about nuance, different kinds of characters all that has happened now,” the actor said, adding, “For me, films have also changed. I am being offered complex roles and parts, and it is possible to make a lucrative living that can support a fairly lovely lifestyle.”
The 50-years-old actor also acknowledged that there came a point in his life when he knew ‘that things are not really working out’ and that is the time when he chose to reinvent and have fun ‘rather than chasing money and stardom by doing Love Aaj Kal or whatever’.
He was quoted as saying, “You have to not be scared and you have to not be vain. You have to be really connected. Either that can come from a state of complete security or just that you have nothing to lose. It might have been a combination of both for me. I don’t know when it happened but at some point I realised that if this career is not going to work out, let it not work out. I made interesting choices, let me be a good actor and learn. I think there came a point where I said, ‘Listen, things aren’t really working, so let me just enjoy it, rather than chasing money and stardom by doing Love Aaj Kal 2 or whatever. Let me do Kaalakaandi and some fun things, and reinvent.”
He further added that once an actor to a point of not being scared of failure and agreeing to look terrible because roles demand it or disappearing into the character.
Meanwhile, on the work front, he will be next seen in Bunty Aur Babli 2, Bhoot Police, and Adipurush.