Saif Ali Khan on playing negative character in Adipurush: Depressing if you are constantly being wicked

After playing grey roles in Tanhaji and Tandav, Saif Ali Khan looks forward to essaying righteous cop in Vikram Vedha.

Give him a morally bankrupt character, and Saif Ali Khan will knock it out of the park — be it the devilish portrayal of Udaybhan Rathod in Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior (2020) or the shrewd politician in Tandav. But where there is grey, there is also white. After a string of negative roles, the actor says he is looking forward to playing a righteous cop in Vikram Vedha, the official remake of the 2017 Tamil thriller.  
   
"I will play an idealistic cop, so I will have to find a way to make him fun. But it will be a refreshing change to portray the good guy," begins the actor. The noir thriller, which traces how Vikram’s perspective of good and evil changes after meeting gangster Vedha, is expected to go on floors in mid-2021. While Aamir Khan was to initially slip into the role of Vedha, it is now heard that the makers are in talks with Hrithik Roshan.

Pushkar-Gayathri, who directed Vikram Vedha, will helm the Hindi adaptation

However, before he can tread on the right side of the law, Khan will take another stab at villainy with Adipurush. In the Om Raut-directed adaptation of the Ramayana, he has taken on the responsibility of playing Lankesh, the larger-than-life antagonist to Prabhas’s Lord Ram. Ask him if he finds himself drawn to the grey over the good, and the actor says, “I have always enjoyed grey roles more than milky white characters. In Adipurush, I am playing the ultimate negative character. But, after a point, it gets depressing if you are constantly being wicked. I also worry about being repetitive. So, I [balance it] by essaying a character like Sartaj Singh [Sacred Games], who is kind and vulnerable. The idea is to channel different energies.”

Khan is currently shooting the last leg of Bhoot Police in Jaisalmer. The horror-comedy was one of the first Bollywood films to go on floors post the pandemic. “Getting back to work was initially scary. The producers did their best to maintain a safe environment," he says.

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