The first mainstream actor to invest his talent and time with a web series like sacred games, tells Hello! Why the universe around this platform truly satisfies an actor’s soul. The son of an erudite Bengali actress and a true-blue cricket-legend and nawab, saif touches upon what cricket means to him, admits to the trend of pro-nationalism content, and most important, how it feels to be a father at 50 to both, a svelte 21-year-old star daughter and a blue-eyed viral toddler who now says, ‘no pictures mama…!’
We are stealing Saif ’s time from his ongoing shoot in London, a light-hearted movie which is a welcome break after a long stint shooting as the cop Sartaj for the web series, Sacred Games. It’s summer time, holiday season, and we imagine his family rushes to greet him once his shooting for the day is done. When he comes on the phone, Saif is generous with his views, sounding every bit a product of Britain and royal India, with his wry sense of humour, modesty and candour. Over to the man of the moment…
A NEW UNIVERSE
Sacred Games as a series, appears to be a gamechanger both for your audiences, and for you as an actor. What kind of preparation went into becoming Sartaj?
“Apart from being a Punjabi kind of cop, there is a certain body language I had to imbibe. In the first season, Sartaj was a bit of a loser, he was a bit overweight and kind of out of it. And then after things start heating up, he becomes a bit more like he is in the book; fitter, smarter, kinder and sharper. To create that kind of arc, the kind of academic preparation was pretty intense. I had to get the Punjabi accent right. I found the words that describe him best, right at the source – from the book, Sacred Games. Those words are, ‘troubled and honest.’ Everything he does is through that lens. Troubled is but natural if you see not too many honest people around yourself.”
What was it like exposing yourself to the drab, dreary, smarmy underworld realities that cops in India have to deal with daily…
This story is from the July 2019 edition of Hello! India.
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This story is from the July 2019 edition of Hello! India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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