As long as everyone's clear and there's no bad blood or you know no controversy around why
and you've gone about it the right way which of course they would and I don't really have an issue with that
What does Kareena think of your paunch?
Well, she's almost seen it happening in real life also
Somebody written a script for me where I had to say in this part of the act of going on KBC
saying that we are the original Bunty Babli. Mr Bachchan looked and said original Bunty
Babli? And didn’t recognise me? Dashrath Singh and I realised how did I walk into that one
It's a blessing having the children and having the family together because we had a really
intimate and lovely time and it was a tough time but we managed because of the positive
energy of the kids honestly so yeah it was great
Welcome to Pinkvilla, Saif.
Firstly, what I wanted to ask you is when it comes to sequels and you know remakes and
reboots there's always a lot of chatter even before it's shot so when Bunty and Babli 2 was
you know given was offered to you, was it an immediate decision to say yes or did you have
any apprehensions of joining a franchise?
I got a call from Aditya Chopra saying that would I have any qualms stepping in to play a
role that another actor has played because he's a very correct person and he said for some
reason you know they were not able to take that conversation forward and do I have issues
with it and I said well I think I have built you know I mean Hum Tum came to me like that as
well and that happens as long as everyone’s clear and there's no bad blood or it's you know
no controversy around why and you've gone about it the right way which of course they
would and I don't really have an issue with that. I still went back and forth saying yes and no a
few times but that was based on something else and dates and things like this but that’s not
for this but it's a role that I thought it's very different to the original it’s kind of set in the
much later in the future as an entirely different person
And you know when we speak about you and Rani, I think the first film that comes to our
mind like you said is Hum Tum because that such you know it's a romantic comedy that you
know is spread across generations, it has so many fans even now and with Bunty Aur Babli 2
do you ever think a Hum Tum 2 would work or do you think it's too good of an original to ever be rebooted?
Why not? I think anything can be done if you like the character.
You can do it, you can start with them at 50 and flash back to them being younger whatever
you can do all kinds of things like people are looking for ideas all the time and you have
to make sure it’s a genuine idea and not just a like a random idea you know
Yeah, and you know even when you see the trailer for the first time there's the obvious
physical transformation of Bunty you know from the paunch to the well you know dress suits
and the director had said that one of the things that he admires the most about you is how you
don't really care much about vanity when you're shooting so what was more fun for you to
shoot, was it with the paunch or was it when you were all suited up?
The paunch
Yeah, the good question I try to avoid being vain
Which is a pretty big thing for an actor to do
Yeah, it's an easy thing to become because there's a camera on you and everyone's going
to look at you so it's very easy to be there but I find it’s a rookie kind of error you know it's
like a mistake for newcomers to become vain because it's about becoming somebody else you
know and losing all that so yeah whatever I enjoyed the paunch and the loser-ish qualities
of Rakesh more than the glamorous parts
What does Kareena think of your paunch?
But she's almost seen it happening in real life also
She never says anything about my looks. If I’m once when we started dating, she I think she
said something about looking tired but otherwise even if I look bad, she never ever says it
But if I look good, she said
And you know recently I think one of the things that you had said which had gone viral was
how Taimur wanted to be a bad guy after seeing Tanhaji and in Bunty Aur Babli you're again
playing a con man so what do you think his reaction is going to be this time around?
I don't know if I know him, he's going to say I don't want to be a like a guy with a paunch.
He's a little vain. No, no I don't know I’m joking. But he understands that I think quite early
because I do a mix of roles luckily, I’m not just a villain or a hero. So he says are you good in
this movie? Do you kill people in this movie? Do you con people what do you do in this
movie? So, I’m like well this is a cute role, he's a good guy, he doesn't kill anyone, he's a bit of
a con. What's a con? It's a thief. Ah, okay. So I mean he's constantly hearing something or the
other from what I’m doing. Whether it's Raavan or whether
it's so I think he's understood that it's all drama
Okay. And you know again like you know we were talking about you and Rani it’s such a
you know a very fresh pair even today and what I wanted to ask you is you know 17 years
back and now what was your first impression of Rani back then and what is your impression
of her now in terms of professionally speaking?
But professionally speaking I remember I think Hum Tum was the first time I’d worked
with her and I seen her on screen and I thought she had a lovely voice and a very different
look but after Kajol you know there was this really natural actor and when I worked with her
it was like competitive and interesting because you know I could really we would go at these
scene, the best we could and kind of it was interesting because Aditya Chopra said we had
great chemistry because very different people you know and like she would ground me, he
said in a way and this kind of thing so I remember there was a fly that flew into the scene and
I saw it buzzing around her head and I thought I tried to swat it but I didn't cut the shot but
she didn't cut the shot also many people would have cut the shot and I realised that we can
really improvise also, things can happen when we work together so we were good working
together like that then in this movie I was conscious that a lot of people say when you
publicise films that, oh you're a wonderful pair and you did this film 100 years ago and it was
great but we've got to move with the times and I was like okay, we better be good now and
the thing about her she's you know a really natural actress so it's timeless, it doesn't matter,
she's just playing a part and also movies have nicely changed so we're not trying to be Hum
Tum again you know we're playing this over the hill couple that get a chance to kind of
become young again so in that sense I think it's well cast and like I said the only thing I’ve
ever it’s quite a professional relationship I mean this time we spoke a little more about family
and we've spoken about Kareena in the past and things like that but it's always been quite a
professional equation where we're both just trying to do a great scene and go home so no
changes really there you know
And you know you guys recently shot for KBC and it was with Amitabh Bachchan who was you
know a very important part of the first one so how was that
experience like? Did he share stories how was that experience?
Somebody had written a script for me where I had to say in this part of the act of going on
KBC we are the original Bunty Babli so Mr Bachchan looked at me and said original Bunty
Babli. And didn’t recognise me? Dashrath Singh and I realised how did I walk into that one
but he's too good, he's just a legend like the way he speaks Hindi I’ve just never heard
anybody speak like that. I was looking at him and I said I’m learning from you something and
I just want to say that you're the best I’ve seen I mean I’ve been on other people's game
shows there’s just nothing like this person at his senior age he's better than all these young
guys it was just amazing, unbelievable
KBC actually feels like a Hindi lesson every time you watch it you learn such
He's so good at the way he interacts with the audience and he interacts with him so he's
telling he said that I’m Bengali he's something his wife is you know Jaya ji then he's told Rani
you are Bengali and impatiently I said even me and he said I am coming to you but the
control with which he says it is too good like you don't have to dance to be entertaining you know
Yeah, that’s true and you know this is strictly hypothetically speaking if you could scam any
celebrity for something that they possess who and what would it be? Very strictly
hypothetically speaking
But I mean you'd only scam someone for money now what does you scam them for? Not
their hairstyle or their clothes or their car, you will have to scam them for money.
If we scam it be Akshay Kumar
Because he's so incredibly wealthy
That is true
Also, in a few years you're completing three decades in the industry and I think one thing that
fans love about you is how all of your characters are so drastically different from each other
and what would you say what can fans expect from you from because I feel like you have had
such a roller coaster journey right like a lot of hits and a few misses so what can we expect
from Saif Ali Khan I feel like you have a new era all the time?
Well, I mean I don't know. I’ve got some good films lined up I’m looking forward to Vikram
Vedha very much which I’m prepping for right now and you know Adipurush is in the cans
which is insane and there's a film called Fire with Rahul Dholakia and there's something else.
There's something with Siddharth Anand’s company so there's lots of stuff but right now it's
Vikram Vedha and it's a good time because there's great roles being offered and people are
making films in a better and better way and I’m really happy that I’m in the industry at this
time doing this stuff so I think instinctively I like doing
interesting things so people can look forward to that
I think you know Bunty and Babli 2 were amongst the first movies in Bollywood which was
shot during the quarantine procedure and how would you say things have changed in terms of
shooting like you know especially when we're still in a pandemic how it used to be and how it was?
Well, I mean Yash Raj it's always been a very crowded experience shooting and there's been
hundreds of people jumping all over you and all this kind of stuff and sound guys and
wardrobe guys and even like Adipurush there's about 10 people like touching me and
touching my face because I’m wearing a beard, fingers in your mouth after every two minutes
I’m like dada, did you sanitise your hands? And he's like of course yeah and I’m like sorry
I’m just asking because you know
You feel a little worried because it's not the kind of profession where you can't come into
contact and actors can't wear masks but Aditya Chopra really tried to put everybody in a
bubble and you know tests and blah blah I mean must have been a big pain but he did it and
we managed so far you know I’ve shot two three films. Every day you're worried but when
the cameras on you're never worried but and you try and be careful people were chartering
planes and you know trying to make a bubble in Dharamshala and we kind of managed but
it's not as much fun as when there’s no pandemic
You know in a talk show you had said you were joked about how you don't want to like the
reason why you don't want to be on quarantine is because you might have more babies but
what I wanted to ask you is how was that quarantine period of spending so much time with
your family because as actors I think the problem is that you don't get to spend as much time
with family as you’d love to and here you had baby Jeh as well so how was that?
I mean silver lining no I mean it was great that was the best thing about
I mean God's gift to us during the pandemic really was young Taimur in the first one because
he was happy to have us and we will be playing with him all the time and he was so
positive and easy so it's a blessing having the children and having the family together because
we had a really intimate and lovely time and it was a tough time but we managed because of
the positive energy of the kids honestly so yeah it was great.
Anyways thank you so much Saif it was so much fun talking
to you best of luck for Bunty aur Babli and all the other projects.