MUMBAI: Actor Saif Ali Khan, in a recent interview, said that being less popular than Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan somehow worked in his favour, as he went on to experiment with his characters and films.
When asked if having relatively less stardom was a “good thing” for him as an actor, Saif said: “Yes, absolutely. I completely agree with that.” He added, “I have to say these guys—Shah Rukh, Salman Khan and Aamir—were kind of born somehow to be actors. I think it must have been a childhood ambition. Certainly, I know it was for two of them. I don’t know if it was Salman’s ambition anyway but he was certainly built for it and made for the kind of success he saw. I joined movies at a time where you got to aim to either be a superstar or not bother. And there’s a point there. It wasn’t really about nuance, different kinds of characters…all that has happened now.” In the interview, Saif also stated that, unlike Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir, he needed someone to complete him as an actor in films and for him, it was Akshay Kumar. Saif and Akshay have co-starred in films like Main Khiladi Tu Anari, Keemat, Aarzoo, Tu Chor Main Sipahi and Yeh Dillagi, most of which fared well at the box office.