Saif Ali Khan on 'Adipurush', 'Tandav' controversies: It's unsettling, we have to police ourselves

Mumbai: Actor Saif Ali Khan says controversies around his 2023 film "Adipurush" and OTT series "Tandav" have made him more careful about picking his projects as he wants to stay away from trouble.

The backlash around "Adipurush" was "unsettling", said Khan at the India Today Mumbai Conclave 2024 on Thursday evening.

"It's a little unsettling because there was a case and there was some kind of a decision taken by the court that said an actor is responsible for what he says on screen. So technically, if you say something, you could get a case against you, saying you shouldn't have said that, which is a lot of pressure.

"So you try and tell the producer that, 'listen, if anyone gets in trouble, it's going to be you.' But I don't know how covered you actually are," the 54-year-old actor said.

"Adipurush", an adaptation of epic Ramayana by filmmaker Om Raut, had courted a massive controversy last year and was panned on social media over its poor VFX and colloquial dialogues, which also led to protests and police complaints against the makers.

In the movie, Khan played the role of Lankesh (Raavan), opposite Prabhas as Raghav (Ram) and Kriti Sanon as Janaki (Sita), which didn't go well with many.

"We all have to kind of slightly police ourselves and be a bit careful, otherwise there could be trouble. So it's unsettling. But you also understand that there are certain areas, for example, religion. You just stay away from that. And there's many stories we can tell. We're not here to make trouble. So we're like, 'Fine, we'll just stay completely away from'," he said.

Before "Adipurush", Khan's 2021 series "Tandav", a nine-episode political thriller also starring Dimple Kapadia and Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, was embroiled in a massive political storm for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.

The Ali Abbas Zafar-directed series was particulary slammed for a controversial scene, which led to multiple FIRs.

Khan said the show was "almost cancelled" and its producer faced tremendous pressure.

"You learn that next time, somebody asks me, 'would you like to do that same job again?' Knowing what I know now, I'd say no. It's asking for trouble. But I'm lucky. I get a lot of offers. I can do something else. So these areas, you need to be a little careful," he added.

Khan believes cinema is medium that can unify people.

"And sometimes I find if I make a certain comment or do a certain thing, I end up dividing people. And that goes completely against what we had set out to do in the first place. I mean, our profession is one of the few things that bring this whole country together, irrespective of caste and creed. So I think you have to think before you get into that." Khan said he has no intention of joining politics.

"And if I had strong views, I think I would become one and then share them in that way," he said, adding that he wouldn't share his political views publicly.

"I'm not looking for that kind of heat. But if I was, then I would go all the way and join a political party. But I'm not ready to do that yet." Asked to comment on the current crop of politicians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, said "they're all brave".

"I think what Rahul Gandhi has done has also been very impressive because there was a point where people were disrespecting things he was saying and things he was doing. And I think he's turned that around by working very hard, in a very interesting way.

"Beyond that I don't want to get into a thing of who I support and what my politics is because I want to be apolitical in my outlook. And I think the country has spoken quite clearly. I'm happy about one thing. That democracy is alive and thriving in India," he said.