When Saif Ali Khan was asked to break-up with his girlfriend his debut film director: ‘You leave your girlfriend or you do the film’
Saif Ali Khan, son of veteran actor Sharmila Tagore, made his debut in the movies in the early 1990s but back then, the ‘Chote Nawab’ was known more for his off-screen persona than his movies. Saif might not have tasted success as easily as many of his contemporaries, but the actor believed that his struggles were of a different nature altogther. In an old interview, Saif had mentioned that he was fired from his first film because his director wanted him to break up with his girlfriend.
In a video shared Wild Films India, Saif was asked about his struggles in Mumbai and if his struggles were any lesser because he is the son of a famous actor. Saif questioned what being a struggler really meant and said, “Struggle ka matlab kya hota hai? Auto rickshaw mein baitho aur 10 chakkar kaato. Kisi ke office mein 3 ghante ke liye baitho. Ise struggle kehte hain. Meri struggle bhi thi lekin alag thi. Mujhe apni pehle film se nikaal diya gaya kyuki mere director saab ne bola ki you leave your girlfriend or you do the film. It was a moral choice (Wha does struggle even mean? Sit in an auto rickshaw and go to the same place 10 times. Sit in an office and wait for 3 hours. That’s what they call struggle. My struggle was a bit different. I was fired from my first film because my director asked me to either leave my girlfriend or continue on the film).”
Saif was talking about the 1992 film Bekhudi, directed Rahul Rawail. The film was set to be Saif’s debut but he was fired amid accusations. In another interview given to Lehren at the time, Saif had said that he was accused of turning up drunk on set and no one wanted to work with him after that. “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,” he said.
In a 2020 interview with Mumbai Mirror, Saif recalled another incident from Bekhudi and said, “I had to tear through fake cobwebs and emerge, singing a line that went, ‘Chaahat Ki Raahon Mein, Kyun Itna Darti Hai’. It was not easy because my expression had to change as I went from ‘chaahat ki raahon mein’ to ‘kyun itna darti hai.’ I might just about pull it off today, but, back then, straight out of a boarding school in England, I was petrified. I must have performed really badly because soon after, Rahul Rawail threw me out of the film, complaining I wasn’t showing enough interest. That shot, I must admit, was particularly appalling.”
Saif eventually made his debut with the 1993 film Aashik Awara.
