Half of Saif Ali Khan's career was buried under the shadow of another hero

It was the year 2007 and the stage of the Filmfare Awards was decorated. Saif Ali Khan was also sitting in the crowd of celebrities. It had been 16 years since he entered the film industry, but he did not get the Filmfare Best Actor Award even once. This time he was not even in the nomination. Still, there was a smile on his face. There was confidence somewhere in the mind. The confidence that came while doing the first film in 1991 that 'I can work in the film line'

His father Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was the first popular captain of the Indian cricket team. His grandfather, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi was also the captain of the Indian team. Saif Ali Khan, heir to the family of Nawabs of Pataudi village in Haryana, remained in England for his studies. His childhood was spent there. Although there was no dearth of money in the family, yet, his father had a strict order that the amount of money given to Saif's friends by his family members for pocket money, the same amount would be given to him as well.

Well let's also say that Saif is very straightforward in nature, he doesn't know much cleverness. But now what to do with the expenses, was born in Delhi and lives in England. This means the tongue is clever and the city is expensive, Nawabi blood is on top of that, so Saif often used to take one-half pound from his father's bundle of notes when he got the opportunity.

Once he tried to clean his hands in mother Sharmila Tagore's purse and was caught. She used to count every penny. What was it then, all four hands fell. But along with their mother's hands, he also got his mother's heart. That's why instead of cricket, Saif felt like making a career in acting. Although after studying in England, he did a job in Delhi for two months, but things did not work out. Then Nawab Saheb sent him to Mumbai itself. In 1991, he got the lead role in Rahul Rawail's film Bekhudi and started shooting for it. Saif was very happy with his quick break when Rahul Rawail fired him from the film saying that Saif Ali Khan still needs to learn discipline. But he learned something else on the sets of Bekhudi.

Actually, it happened that here his eyes collided with Amrita Singh and both of them got married in the same year in 1991 without caring for the world. Saif's luck opened as soon as he got married and he got a chance to debut in Yash Chopra's film Parampara. Two more of his films, Aashiq Awara and Pehchan were also released in the same year but unfortunately, all three flopped. But he got the Filmfare Award for Best Debut for the film tradition. Saif felt that from here on the journey would become easier and a time would come when he would have only awards.

But Yash Chopra still trusted him and made Akshay Kumar together to make Yeh Dillagi which became a good hit. Just after this, 'Main Khiladi Tu Anari' was also released, which raised the flag of success. Saif's films were hits but he got recognition as a supporting artist or second lead. After this, Saif kept doing films for four consecutive years and the films kept getting beaten. Ek Tha Raja, Suraksha, Keemat, Tu Chor Main Sipahi etc. many films came and went.

Now call it Kamal or Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan and Sharmila Tagore's influence that Saif continued to get films. Even the critics said that Saif's career is over now.

He had a total of four films left in 1999, in which Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan was a flop and Arzoo was moderately successful. This was her 5th film with Akshay Kumar. But in the same year, with Ajay Devgan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's musical thriller film Kachche Dhaage was released.

This film filled Saif's bag with name-fame and money. Although many critics also found saying that Saif is buried in the shadow of Ajay Devgan, but the question about Saif's career end ended due to the hit of this film. Hum Saath Saath Hain released soon after, starring Saif with a huge cast and became the highest grosser of 1999 at the box office.

After this he did a good film named 'Kya Kehna' with Preity Zinta which did not do much at the box office. These days Farhan Akhtar was looking for a flirtatious boy for his first film. Here Saif was accompanied by Aamir Khan and Akshaye Khanna. The year 2001 film Dil Chahta Hai also proved to be a big hit at the box office, but this time Saif was left under the shadow of not one but two co-stars.

In the same year the film 'Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein' was also released and this film was also a super-duper hit but all the credit went to South actor R-Madhavan. This is what happened when Saif's role in Karan Johar's Kal Ho Naa Ho with Shah Rukh was praised, but Shah Rukh Khan got the credit for the film being a hit. Saif was often nominated at the Filmfare Awards, but did not receive awards except for Best Comedian for Dil Chahta Hai and Best Supporting Actor for Kal Ho Naa Ho. Everyone felt that Saif would now be seen only in the supporting cast.

But in the year 2004 something changed. Firstly, he separated from Amrita Singh after 13 years of marriage and having two children. Second, his career took a turn. She did a great job in Sriram Raghavan's Ek Hasina Thi, but the film's lead actress Urmila Matodkar took all the credit for the film's success.

But, in 2004 itself, he directly received the National Award for Best Actor for Kunal Kohli's film 'Hum Tum'. However, the National Award jury had to face a lot of criticism for this decision. At the same time, Filmfare once again handed over the Best Comedian Award to Saif for this film.

The next year, Saif was praised a lot in Parineeta, Salaam Namaste and Being Cyrus, but these films did not work and Saif could not get out of the shadow tag of any other actor. In the same year, Vishal Bhardwaj made his second appearance on William Shakespeare's famous play Othello. Had announced the making of the film. The film was to have three lead actors, one of whom, Ajay Devgan, was finalized for the title role. Vivek Oberoi was fitting in the third role. When the second role was offered to Saif, Saif got confused. Because he remembered how all the lime light had gone towards Ajay Devgan in Kachche Dhaaga. After all, Ajay is also a powerful actor.

But Saif could not even refuse Vishal Bhardwaj. In 2007, Saif was nominated for the first time in the Best Villain category at the Sadke Filmfare Awards for the same film. But veteran actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Boman Irani were also included in these nominations. Still Saif was relaxed. Then when it was announced 'Best Villain Awards goes to - Saif Ali Khan', a big smile floated on Saif's face and there was satisfaction in his mind that what if he could not become the best hero, I was still the best villain.

There was something similar in his character 'Langda Tyagi' from Omkara which dwarfed even a powerful character like Ajay Devgan's Omkara. Saif's walk, complexion, speech were all changed in such a way that it was difficult to recognize him in Omkara. After this Saif did not look back again. Just understand that after some 16 years, he got such success that the world became crazy about his acting.

Since then, Saif has given more than one commercial films like Love Aaj Kal, Kurbaan, Aarakshan, Go Goa Gone, Phantom etc., while in Art films also in films like Chef and Lal Kaptan, the audience has accepted his talent. In 2012, after five years of courtship, Saif married Kareena and today she has two sons, Taimur and Jahangir, with Kareena Kapoor. In 2017, his Sikh character Sartaj in Vikram Chandra's novel 'Sacred Games' was also well received by the audience.

Saif's third film Tanhaji, released last year with Ajay Devgan, proved to be the highest grossing film of 2020. Saif once again won the Best Supporting Actor award.

But unlike his characters, Saif is a very simple man. When he goes to his village Pataudi, he likes to sleep with his grandmother on the terrace. Sometimes he goes for an auto ride with his son Taimur and sometimes he spends hours playing video games.

We at Mayapuri Group wish Saif Ali a very Happy Birthday and wish his upcoming movies Bhoot Police, Bunty Aur Babli 2 and Adi Purush to be super-duper hits.