Kareena, Taimur, Sara, Ibrahim: Hear This Open Phone Conversation With Saif- Part 1
He is an interviewer's delight. This time is no exception. Meet the Nawab of Pataudi, Saif Ali Khan, in a no-holds-barred telephonic chat which we reproduce in verbatim, and you can also listen to it
Hear it above and read it below:
Taimur is 2 months old. How does it feel to become a father all over again after such a long time?
You never set your foot in the same river twice; life is constantly moving. This is a good time. I am very happy, excited and settled to have brought Taimur into this world.
Do you have to get up in the middle of the night?
Not a problem at all. I sleep pretty late anyway. If he is up, I get to see him--- and that's lovely. Besides, these things are a part of life.
Who decided on the name as Taimur?
Actually, Kareena and I both did. I gave her a few choices and Taimur was the name she liked the most.
I thought there was an unnecessary uproar over your son's name Taimur...
It's nice of you to think and say that. A lot of people wrote articles in support. It's okay if some people had a difference of opinion. I didn't name him after anybody. I quite like the name and especially how it sounds. Saif means 'Sword', Taimur means 'Iron'... that's it! Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is coincidental, as they say in movies.
Do you really think that we are living in liberal times?
Well, I am. The people around me are liberal. My friends are liberal. My family is liberal. What's happening around me, I am really not bothered.
There's a lot of talk and excitement, people get worked up on social media. But again, that's what social media is for. So it's not that our country is
basically not liberal.
Image Source: Instagram/Kareena kapoor & images
You are not inclined towards the social media...
I thought about it when it started. But if I have to keep thinking what to post to give a good impression to my fans about myself, it would make life a bit less natural for me. I would be only on a clicking spree- clicking my sons, daughter, wife, mom. Where will it stop?
Any event or film I do anyways does appear on social media, doesn't it? But trying to make a comment on everything will be putting too much of pressure on myself. I can't keep thinking all the time about what is the next cool thing to say. I would rather meet people in real life and talk to them directly and spontaneously.
I remember I consciously decided not to click pictures of Kareena when she was delivering Taimur. I wanted to see her face. I wanted to see that moment. If I had been immersed in my phone planning my posts on social media, I would have lost out on that moment.
We are all chasing the camera. Why? Strike a balance, have your fun--- but that's not your entire life. People are dressing up for the picture, not for the party. It's good to have a party and talk to each other. But that's gone all so missing.
There's a nightclub in London where you can't take pictures, I think that's quite cool.
Are you telling me that you hardly use your phone? Can you live without it?
I am not saying that I hardly use my phone. Travelling from studio to home is boring, it's nice if I am doing an interview with you along the way like now. Otherwise, I do use my phone to keep in touch with family and friends. I also read a lot on the phone screen. I love history. Like I keep reading why Hitler hated the Jews so much. So yeah, I am not saying that I hate the Internet or the SMS or the WhatssApp.
I am just saying that if I was to start posting things, it would really take away something from my life.
Let's imagine that I am at a party. My picture gets clicked and I run to post it. I don't like the picture. What will I do next? Ask the person who clicked it to click again. Surely, that's not the way I want to live life. It would be too much for me. However, it's great that many stars do it. Their fans get to see them as a consequence.
Please underline that I am not being judgmental.
Okay, let me tell you another example. I once went to France and was near the riverside. I was only messaging my wife: Landed, this, that, blah, blah, blah. After sometime I realised that I hadn't seen the place! I immediately put down my phone and decided to fix my eyes on what was around me.
Sometimes you need to watch the sunset, you need to talk to different people from different spheres of life. The main thing of life can't be to impress everybody with a great phone or a great picture.
Image Source: piming
How is Kareena in this regard?
She loves reading all this. She loves the Net. In that respect, we are quite different from each other. I would rather read a book. Kareena likes to know everything. She would even read blogs and stories on fashion. On the other hand, at times, I would zone out or do small talk with friends and quietly have a drink. It's good to constantly know what's happening but it's not difficult to catch up on whatever has happened.
I totally relate to you...
Yeah, and by the way, let me tell you that I am looking forward to reading Ramayan, Mahabharat, Vikram Aur Betal and The Great Myths to Taimur. I am looking forward to building blocks. I am looking forward to play with toy cars. I am looking forward to painting. I am looking forward to making a ship, reading it up on the Net. It's going to be so much fun.
The big fun would be to make paper boats in the monsoon and have them race down the gutter in a building.
And I dont want Taimur to wear designer clothes in childhood. He should be in a normal ganji and jeans. It's tempting to dress up the kid like Tom Cruise's son- but that's not happening (laughs).
It's common practice in our society: Boy's side will say that the child looks like the father. Girl's side will say that the child looks like the mother. Is it happening at your end?
No. We all feel that he looks like a Kapoor. But yeah, I think he has my eyes. My mother (Sharmila Tagore) feels that Taimur looks like Dabooji (as Randhir is fondly called), very gora (fair skinned).
Image Source: images
Omkara, and now Rangoon. Special connection with Vishal Bhardwaj?
Vishal has offered me stuff which I haven't understood and hence not done, so I hope he forgives me for that.He has been patient when I told him that I am not relating to it, he has not held it against me. I remember Sajid Nadiadwala (producer of Rangoon) telling me that Rangoon is happening. I heard the script and i was jumping up and down. Vishal is a terrific director for sure. He is simply brilliant. Times are changing but it was hard to find so much culture in my career- like what is prevalent in Rangoon.
Rangoon is something we can show internationally, it's a film which I can proudly show it to my children. I will always be proud of it.
Image Source: hd pictures
Is Langda Tyaagi (from Omkara) still your best, you would say?
Hmmm, well it was definitely great. When people think that you have an English accent and suddenly you come up with something which is so rich in Hindi... and carry it out convincingly.
Frankly, my Hindi is pretty good, my Hindi accent is also good, it's just that the conception of me is quite angrez. I think i quite underestimate myself.
Do you think in English or Hindi?
I think in English, but nowadays a bit of Hindi also comes in. Like saying 'Bah****od, yeh kya ho gaya' is a different feeling from just saying 'Damn it'. But yeah, predominantly I think in English.
It has got to do with art, poetry and literature, which i have studied. Art is the constellation to get for your mortality, something frozen in time that lives forever. My exposure to art is more western, which is why maybe I think in English.
If I had been exposed to Tansen, Begum Akhtar and Swami Vevekananda, maybe I would have thought in Hindi.
It's a wonderful philosophy, but my training has been in English.
Do you read Bhagwad Gita or says, books on philosophy?
If I had done politics and philosophy as subjects, I would have understood the world better. It would have been the perfect courses.
Things like HInduism and Gita are wonderful and easy to read, but difficult to understand.
So I keep reading and try to understand things at a philosophical level, but it's not easy to comprehend the inner meaning of philosophy unless someone teaches it to you.
Did you have the option to choose politics, philosophy as subjects?
If I had gone to the University instead of doing Parampara (laughs).
But I chose to join movies and I was a bit of naughty boy who was less interested in studies like many actors, but it's not that I didn't go to the best of schools/colleges. I educated myself in Oxford Cambridge and I respect it immensely. I respect academics and I really love to read.
A library is important around you. It sounds English I know but having a book in your hand with a small whisky near you is something lovely.
Image Source: images & hd wallpapers
How is that you are so much at peace to enjoy reading?
I am at peace. I am not saying that I have given up on everything. But I am settled now, emotionally and financially. So I have become very aware of what I am doing.
So lately, I have been asking myself: Hey, what's happening? You leave your house at 9 when Taimur is sleeping and you return at 9 pm when he is again sleeping.
I ought to balance my life and say that I will shoot till 5 pm only, and say aise hi hoga. Maybe I also need to take 2-3 months off from work...
I meant, don't you feel edgy? Most stars are so preoccupied in protecting their stardom almost all the time...
I feel edgy but at 46, I am a lot calmer now.I think I have inherited it from my father. My mother is restless. But my dad would happily get into a lungi-n-kurta and read, and play bridge. That does not mean that he had become lazy and was not getting anything from his life, in fact he was getting a lot in return.
Reading to some people might appear as if the person is just passing his/her time, but it is not known what enlightment he is getting from it. Reading opens one's mind and makes one so mature, it even adds to your acting capabilities.
Many films of stars amass 100/200 crore, yeh aapko nahin hai ki meri film bhi..?
Of course, kyun nahin hai? I would be damn happy. I would love to be like Aamir Khan and do just 1 film in 1 or 2 years and be the main guy, you can then promote your film in your own way, you do interviews in your own way and not on funny shows, and you don't have to be a desperate entertainer looking to go everywhere and do eveything so that people come to watch your film. You can't even imagine the kind of publicity we are asked to do. This all takes the fun out from being an actor, and we start pretending to be all kinds of people.
Image Source: hdwallpapers
That wasn't the case in your early days in Bollywood...
It was so much simpler then, just do a couple of interviews and it was done. Today, we are asked to do 3 interviews in a day and then in the end, you yourself don't feel like reading of what all you have said.
Why do we see you less in films after 2013... Agent Vinod, Go Goa Gone and then...?
Some wrong films... I don't know what I was thinking then, maybe I was thinking of making some money--- and then of course I am not used to people telling me things.
People around stars tell them 'Sab achcha hai...'
No, they just don't tell you anything, nobody is your mother.
I then decided to work with only good people. There are a lot of dangerous people out there who are out to spoil your career.
Vickey, I am getting a call from Sara. I am supposed to meet her for dinner. Can you call me back or I'll call you back in a minute?
We stop the Part 1 here. Stay tuned to SpotboyE.com for many new candid revelations from Saif Ali Khan, who says it as it is. We shall bring you the Part 2 of this interview TOMORROW.
Thumbnail Image Source: static & Instagram/kareena kapoor & images & vk