66 6 august 2018RAJEEV MASAND
NOT PEOPLE
LIKE USWorthy of Praise
Saif Ali Khan may not be on social media, but he knows of
practically every word that’s been written about his perfor-
mance in Sacred Games. The best thing is that he has a sense of
humour about it. He acknowledges repeated comments from
fans about the size of Sartaj Singh’s butt, and chuckles while
admitting that it does look “unusually large” on the show.
Saif is also full of praise for reviewers who’ve spotted the
‘layers’ in the show, but doesn’t agree with the occasional carp-
ing that the Sartaj Singh track is less gripping that the Ganesh
Gaitonde narrative, and that Nawazuddin Siddiqui pretty
much chews up the scenery. “That’s unfair. Nawaz is great, but
the show can’t only be about Ganesh Gaitonde or it would be
very boring. I think we complement each other very well, and
the show works because we’re both quite good in it,” he says.
Although he had only a day’s shoot with Nawaz, during
which they barely spoke (“He was buried under prosthetics
which made it hard for him to talk, but we did exchange friend-
ly grunts”), Saif says watching the Gangs of Wasseypur
star’s performance gave him gooseflesh. He is also
full of admiration for Radhika Apte who plays
RAW agent Anjali Mathur, Jitendra Joshi who
plays Katekar, and Neeraj Kabi who plays his boss
Parulkar. “These guys are at the top of their game
and they bring something that is fresh and
natural and so different from what we were used
to seeing in Bollywood.”
Saif says the praise he’s received for
Sartaj Singh is overwhelming. “I think
I’ll keep my Padma Shri now,” he jokes,
referring to all the complaints over
the years that he was unworthy of
the honour.
No Fake News Please
Abhishek Bachchan will have you
know that you can’t get away with
making up stories about his wife
and child. The actor politely—but
firmly—called out a website for
reading too much into a video of his
family earlier this week.
Seen walking out of the arrival
gate at the airport on their return from London, the video was
interpreted by some troublemaker hack to suggest Aishwarya
wouldn’t let Abhishek hold their daughter Aaradhya’s hand.
Not one to take it lying down, Abhishek put out a tweet asking
the website to refrain from running ‘fake news’.
He wrote: ‘With due respect. Please refrain from making
up false stories. I understand the need to continuously post,
but would really appreciate it if you could do so responsibly
and without mischievous intent. Thank you.’
The story was promptly pulled down by the website.
Abhishek 1. Troublemakers 0.Off-Screen Love
As it turns out, the answer to the niggling question, ‘Are
they dating?’ is ‘yes’. For some weeks now, there have been
whispers, not to mention open speculation in Mumbai
tabloids, about whether the two are romantically involved.
Recently launched together in a Hindi movie, the couple
have revealed terrific chemistry off screen.
Insiders at the studio that has produced the film
say the pair—who started out as strangers, then
became friends—‘got close’ during the film’s
making ‘as most newcomers do’. One source points
out that the experience of making one’s first film
is so unique and challenging that two people
going though it at the same time inevitably find
themselves drawn together.
The source adds that the two may be
infatuated with each other for the mo-
ment, but like another pair launched by
the same studio some years ago, they
are likely to drift apart as they move
on to other projects. Apparently, the
young actors in question have made
no promises of undying, lifelong
companionship. “They’re mature
and intelligent and they understand
that they have long lives and careers
ahead, and that nothing is perma-
nent,” says the source. nRajeev Masand is entertainment editor and
film critic at CNN-NEWS18