Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; November 8, 2017)

Saif Ali Khan is set to play a Gujarati businessman in his next film, Baazaar. Set against the backdrop of the stock trading market in Mumbai, the movie will see the actor speak in Gujarati. Khan tells mid-day that he had to hone his linguistic skills to do justice to the character. “I had a few dialogues in Gujarati in Sajid Khan’s Humshakals (2014), which came in handy while preparing for this film. I have tried to do justice to the scenes by adding Gujaratiness to them. It was challenging because I had to learn long lines, but I enjoyed that. My character in the movie is dark, strong and mean. So getting the nuances right was tough,” says the actor.

The first poster of Baazaar released recently. It features Khan in a salt and pepper look. He is excited about the project because of the character he is playing. “I am essaying a grey character after a long time. He is a ruthless businessman, who does some distasteful things. It got me worried when I read the script, but I realised that’s the beauty of the role. I like this kind of cinema. When you play such a character, you need to be hated by the audience. That’s how I expect the audience to react to my role,” says Khan.

The actor wants to experiment with different genres now. “I don’t think I could have done films like Baazaar and Chef 10 years ago. Whether a film works or not is not in my hands, but I think it’s the duty of an actor to do something entertaining, yet different, for the audience.”