Anupama Chopra, Saif Ali Khan
Anupama Chopra, Saif Ali Khan

It’s a big bone of contention for many people: why is it that Bollywood actors who are in their 40s – and older (looking at you, Sunny Deol) – get to romance actresses half their age over and over again? On this week’s The Front Row, Anupama Chopra poses a similar question to Saif Ali Khan. Does he see his career evolving in a similar manner to our A-listers today, who continue to act in films opposite younger heroines? Here’s what Saif had to say!

Anupama Chopra, Saif Ali Khan, Tigmanshu Dhulia
Anupama Chopra, Saif Ali Khan, Tigmanshu Dhulia

Anupama Chopra: Saif, most of our A-list actors are now in their mid-forties or they are almost fifty but largely, they continue to play roles with larger-than-life heroism against younger and younger heroines.  How do you see your career evolving?

Saif Ali Khan: I’ve always felt that I’m a little junior in age and stature to some of these guys that you’ve mentioned. So I keep hoping they’ll keep rocking it for really long and then after they’ve retired or they’ve been forced to retire, I would imagine I have another five or six years (laughs). I don’t know if that’s correct but that’s the way my mind somehow works. I don’t know what my approach would be.  I’d like to be realistic about it. I’d love to play a character in a love story or romantic comedy like ‘Happy Ending‘, which we’re working on now, where it’s stressed that he’s a bit older than he should be.  To play your age is nice. It’s constantly a balancing act between what you think is right, what your sensibilities are and what the market dictates, I think.

Catch the full conversation with Saif and Tigmanshu Dhulia at 8:30pm tonight on Star World!