When Saif Ali Khan opened up about rumours of being drunk on set: ‘I was thrown out of a film, no one wanted to work with me then’
Saif Ali Khan’s journey to films, before he found a footing as an actor, was riddled with projects falling apart, uncertainty and–what affected him the most–damaging rumours about his professional behaviour.
Saif, who made his screen debut in 1993 with two May releases– Yash Chopra’s Parampara and Umesh Mehra’s Aashik Awara– had in fact lost out on two other films prior to these, one of which he was “thrown out” of due to rumours of showing up on sets, drunk.
In a flashback interview with Lehren, much before he debuted on screen, Saif Ali Khan opened up about the bad press he received for filmmaker Rahul Rawail’s 1992 romantic drama Bekhudi, co-starring Kajol. The actor said there was a misconception that he was not “interested” in films.
“I feel he (Rahul) thinks that I am not interested in films, that I don’t want to work. Several rumours also started going around on, that I came to the sets drunk, that I kept sleeping on the sets. All this is old now but I was quite affected,” Saif said in the interview.
The rumours, Saif said, blemished his reputation as an upcoming actor and the result was out there for him to see: He stopped getting movie offers and was ultimately removed from Bekhudi.
“A lot of directors… No one wanted to work with me then. Who will invest money if they think the boy is not serious? That was a big upsetting thing. He (Rahul) threw me out of that film. I didn’t walk out of either films. Rahul ji’s film is my loss,” he added.
Saif said the other film he was attached to was producer Satee Shourie’s film, with Aanand Mahendroo as the director. Saif said there was just a contract in place, which, once it was broken, he moved out of.
“I was not ousted from the Satee Shourie film. The first line of the contract had clearly stated I will do the film, directed Aanand Mahendroo. Then one day Satee Shourie informed me that Aanand is no longer directing the film. She wanted to find a new director, but I said that cannot happen, the contract was broken already. Aanand said let’s take a new producer, she said let’s find a new director, but I was done. I wanted to work, but practically everything else was happening except work,” he added.
After the initial few hiccups of landing films, Saif’s career took of in the 90s but it remained a lackluster decade for the actor, who truly rose to prominence with filmmaker Farhan Akhtar’s coming-of-age dramedy Dil Chahta Hai in 2001. He will be next seen in Vikram Vedha, co-starring Hrithik Roshan. The film is schedule to release on September 30.
