For Saif Ali Khan, Sriram Raghavan’s Ek Hasina Thi was an opportunity to dabble in darkness. As a vile, deceptive man who betrays a woman in love and gets chewed up by a cave full of rats as punishment, Saif made villainy look suave and sinister. Not surprisingly he wasn’t sure how the audience would react to his change of image. But the response to the actor’s relocation to negativity was overwhelmingly positive. Wonder why he never teamed up with director Sriram Raghavan again. Saif would have been the perfect in Andha Dhun.
The crime thriller extended his canvas as an actor.
Recalling the experience of working in the film Saif says, “What to say about the film and Sriram … it was a fab experience … something new and different and great fun. I felt free to do creative stuff what wasn’t the regular formula. Also I got to play a baddass , which helped get away from chocolate boy roles.”
Recalling the collaboration with Sriram, Saif says, “It was creatively great fun. We planned how blood would splatter on a wall behind a head that got shot by mistake. It was a great creative outlet. We experienced the fun of doing an India film. Ek Hasina Thi was really low-budgeted. But the script had some immensely offbeat moments which made it a special film for the audience. It was truly liberating to work like that.”
As for working with Urmila Matondkar Saif comments, “She was very nice and cool. And I thought she was terrific in the film.”
Ends Saif, “Sadly we never had a great end written when we started shooting. There is a lesson there … never start filming without a good properly worked out script !But it was fun . And I’m so happy I did it.”
