Indian superstar Saif Ali Khan is Bollywood’s go-to guy for refined characters. Give him a role that requires him to be posh (remember Dil Chahta Hai and Hum Tum?) and he will set the bar high. But it’s tough to imagine the real Indian prince — his ancestors ruled Pataudi, an erstwhile princely state near Delhi — in roles that require him to get his hands dirty.
Barring his turn as the villainous Langda Tyagi in Omkara, Bollywood’s rustic answer to Othello, Khan has owned the sophisticated-guy space in a career spanning two decades. This weekend, however, he steps out of his comfort zone as a ruthless gangster in a rural north Indian town.
“Raja Mishra is not refined by any stretch,” Khan says. “He’s like this majestic lion who’s flamboyant and confident. But he’s a complete thug,” he adds of his character, who goes by the name Bullet Raja, or “King of bullets”.
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia, of Paan Singh Tomar fame, the UK-educated Khan was asked to unlearn his natural instincts.
“Some roles need preparation. You need to learn your lines and create this package, which calls for hard work. I play a person who’s completely alien to me. He has a different body language and his accent is different from how I speak. At the same time, I had to remember that I am playing a Bollywood hero’s role. You have to be likeable, lovable and fun.”
Khan has just encapsulated every Bollywood actor’s predicament. Tradition dictates that every action-drama hero come across as an endearing, large-hearted soul — even if he is chopping off fingers for a living.
“But it’s not a violent movie. Yeah, it would be good if all those in Bullet Raja sign up for anger-management classes, but you have to remember India is a tough and a violent place to live in, especially if you are treading the political world,” said Khan.
Bullet Raja traces the lives of two friends who become reluctant gangsters, starting from their rise to fame as they aid wicked politicians to gain power and monopoly.
“You have to admit there’s something intriguing and attractive about doing wrong deeds. It’s all so murky. We have shown the nexus between politicians, policemen and giant corporations. Perhaps, we are glorifying violence but the world of Indian politics is murky,” said Khan.
Bullet Raja is not the first film to tackle sleaze in politics. Ranbir Kapoor’s Rajneeti and Amitabh Bachchan’s Sarkar Raj are some of the recent films that took us into the world of criminals and politicians. However, the son of legendary actress Sharmila Tagore and late Indian cricketer Pataudi claims that highlighting the bad in society makes for an interesting watch.
“Isn’t that the function of cinema… to find characters that are on the wrong side of the tracks? But believe me, the kind of violence we see on computer games these days [is] far more disturbing. This film is not a violent gore fest; it just has a lot of gun fights.”
The trailer of Bullet Raja shows him as a formidable figure with blazing dialogues to make his opponents quiver, such as: “you will know when I enter the room because it will heat up naturally”.
“Tigmanshu is an intelligent filmmaker. I signed this movie because I wanted to work with the guy who made Paan Singh Tomar… plus, I wanted to play a macho mafia don badly,” said Khan.
Starring Irrfan Khan, Paan Singh Tomar — a biopic of an Indian athlete and former soldier who fought against injustices in his village — won big at India’s 60th National Film Awards in March this year.
“Everything you see in Bullet Raja is the vision of Tigmanshu. He has created the character and he told me how to play it because he has written that role. And since he is an actor himself, he can show you how to present things,” said Khan. His character in Bullet Raja may reach for his gun at the slightest provocation, but in real life, Khan supports stricter gun control.
“I don’t like the idea of people walking around in Delhi carrying guns. That’s a frightening thought. I don’t carry guns but if I want to shoot at a rifle range and practice, then I should be allowed to do that for sporting purposes,” said Khan.
The 43-year-old actor, who’s married to Bollywood A-lister Kareena Kapoor, has lead a relatively scandal-free life. A pub brawl where he roughed up a South African businessman and a criminal case in which he was charged with abetting the poaching of endangered black bucks in 1998 (he was hunting with Salman Khan) are the only blips in an otherwise clean conduct card.
He’s also one of the few actors who can laugh at his failures. Last year, his home production Agent Vinod — touted as Bollywood’s version of James Bond — blew up at the box-office, not in a good way.
“Ok, I wasn’t good in that one. I watched it the other day on DVD and it started off with much promise. But it was rubbish after. I am sorry about that. Failure is a part of what we do and it’s important that we experience it. I am glad that we made an attempt with Agent Vinod and that we went wrong.” Perhaps it’s this attitude that makes him popular with his co-stars.
Actor Gulshan Grover, who plays a rich, unscrupulous industrialist in Bullet Raja, says a “superstar slot” should be kept open for Khan to occupy.
“He has tremendous amount of clarity and he is never happy with being adequate. When he walks onto the sets, I can feel his body language that says he’s going to give his best shot. I think Kareena has brought a positive influence in his life. She has worked with so many directors and actors… but whatever his source of inspiration, it has worked wonderfully for him. Mark my words, he is the next super star,” said Grover. The teasers show a fierce Khan threatening Grover with a gun.
“I am one of the wealthiest men in town. I am stylish and arrogant because the state runs with my money. If he’s Bullet Raja then I am the money raja,” said Grover. While he isn’t too happy with the trailers that are currently doing the rounds, he has tremendous faith in Dhulia’s vision.
“For the first time, the hero dominates me completely in the trailers. In other films, the norm is to show villains in full glory in the teaser at least. But trust Tigmanshu to make films that are different,” said Grover. The brief given to him was simple.
“There’s a shot in the film where I am defeated and breathing fire. But he asked me to give an emotional shot where the fierceness of my anger should come across in my eyes, So I am an emotional villan and not just resorting to violence,” said Grover. Both feel they have put their best foot forward in Bullet Raja.
“If I can say so myself, it’s one of my finest performances in my career. I saw it the other day and I just knew it,” said Khan.
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“Who knows with a case like this, who did what? And who’s to blame? I would like to believe there’s more to it than what we have been told. That is the problem with rape and death penalty for rape. What if the guy didn’t do it? Rape is difficult to define and that is a tragedy in itself,” said Khan when asked on his take on Tarun Tejpal’s alleged rape. Tejpal, the editor of Tehelka, a top Indian news magazine, has been accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague whilst in Goa for a conference.
