Saif, the Baazaar baddie

Saif Ali Khan says not all commercial films are fluff and they sometimes give an actor the opportunity to explore oneself as an artiste. 

Saif said his upcoming film Baazaar was one such project. Directed by Gaurav Chawla, the movie is set in the world of stock markets and trading. 

The 47-year-old actor plays antagonist in the film, a street-smart Gujarati businessman. Actor Vinod Mehra’s son 
Rohan is making his debut with the film.

“I think commercial cinema can sometimes give you an opportunity to do good acting because it is strong and more dramatic. I really enjoyed that experience of making commercial cinema more believable and play it like it is more real,” Saif told PTI. 

The actor said the intention of the team of Baazaar was to create a human drama against the backdrop of the stock market. 

“My character is like a nasty antagonist. Rohan Mehra is the hero. It is exciting to play strong and powerful roles. I don’t distinguish (between roles), it is funny. The idea is even if you play bad, if it is well-written, people don’t think they (actors) are being evil or nasty. I hope the audience likes it. The idea is to play something interesting. And grey is fun. I don’t like the idea of playing weak characters. When I was young, I played confused guys, (now I) want to play strong parts,” he said. 

There were reports that the film is inspired by the Hollywood movie The Wolf of Wall Street but the actor denied the claim. “The Wolf of Wall Street is a celebration and exploration of the extremes of money and capitalism. So you have a guy who is out of his mind on money and drugs, losing the plot in California, within the law, outside the law, nobody knows. 

We are nothing like The Wolf of Wall Street.” Produced by Nikkhil Advani, the film was scheduled to released in December last year but was postponed. The release date is yet to be announced. 

“I finished the shooting a couple of weeks ago. There are rumours that it is not happening (release), as Chef did not run but it is not like that,” Saif said.