Saif Ali Khan, who made his Bollywood debut with Parampara in 1993, feels that being less successful than the three Khans -- Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan -- worked in his favour as an actor.
When asked if being relatively less successful was a ‘really good thing’ for him as an actor, he ‘absolutely’ agreed. “I have to say these guys - Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir - were kind of born somehow to be actors. I think it must have been a childhood ambition. Certainly, I know it was for two of them. I don’t know if it was Salman’s ambition anyway but he was certainly built for it and made for the kind of success he saw. I joined movies at a time where you got to aim to either be a superstar or not bother. And there’s a point there. It wasn’t really about nuance, different kinds of characters...all that has happened now,” he said.
Saif said that another reason he experimented with different roles is that he became ‘more interested in acting’ and understands it better now. He asked everyone to be hopeful because ‘there is no definite path’ to make it big. “For me, films have also changed. I am being offered complex roles and parts, and it is possible to make a lucrative living that can support a fairly lovely lifestyle,” he said.
Saif credited Akshay Kumar for helping him make it in Bollywood. He said, “If I was cute and fun in a lot of movies and I did a lot of work with Akshay Kumar, who perhaps lacked at that point, cute and fun, so we made a kind of super-person and found our way in the industry. I completed him and he completed me. I think that’s why we are so fond of each other till today. We realise we owe each other that, in a sense. Usually, a solo successful superstar like these guys (the Khans) don’t need someone to complete them.”
(Source: Film Companion)
