EXCLUSIVE: Saif Ali Khan on Sacred Games, freedom on the internet and owing his success to Mumbai

Saif Ali Khan will be next seen in a project that all the fans of the binge-watching generation will cherish.Saif Ali Khan will be next seen in a project that all the fans of the binge-watching generation will cherish. He will be seen playing a cop, Sartaj Singh, in Netflix’s first Indian original series, Sacred Games. The show, based on Vikram Chandra’s 2006 thriller novel of the same name, pits Saif against, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, playing Ganesh Gaitonde- one of his most menacing roles ever. The series has been co-directed by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, with only the latter shooting for scenes with Saif while the former shot for Nawazuddin. The division of work was done to “save time”, as told to me by Anurag, minutes before my interview with Saif.
Netflix is pretty strict when it comes to promotions. I had never seen so many people from the production house on ground zero before this. As I entered the room to meet Saif, he was already ranting about journalists not sticking to questions about Sacred Games and asking about his kid. And I decided to strike off a question from my list.In an era, where some celebs can’t find time to greet the journos and want to jump right into the action, Saif showed impressive poise and asked for my introduction. After a very brief off-record banter, we sat down for our tête-à-tête.