From Ek Hasina Thi to Omkara to Tanhaji: How Saif Ali Khan is the only leading star to go grey and black 18 times

By Rajiv Vijayakar -

October 23, 2024 - 1:52 PM IST

Every actor worth his salt has played a villain at least once in his career, but Saif Ali Khan, now set to do another negative turn in Sandeep Vanga Reddy’s Spirit, with real-life partner Kareena Kapoor Khan as his partner-in-crime, has travelled most frequently in the dark zone, and decidedly the most successfully.

From Ek Hasina Thi to Omkara to Tanhaji: How Saif Ali Khan is the only leading star to go grey and black 18 times

Naturally, the Rogues’ Gallery he has built up is well into its tenth completely negative turn with that forthcoming film, while it may be said that his characters of Vicky in Yeh Dillagi, Rahul the playboy in Kya Kehna, Shakun Kothari in Baazaar, Inspector Sartaj Singh in his web debut, Sacred Games, Gossain in Laal Kaptaan and even Ranveer in the Race franchise had decided gray shades.

Now, put together, that makes for 16 of 70 films and two web series that Saif has acted in so far in non-goody-goody roles and that is an awesome score for a hero!

After all, we are not talking about the likes of Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha, both of whom were majorly known as villains earlier, but when they shifted to ‘hero’ism, barely essayed even a gray character!

The Saif Ali Khan Rogues’ Gallery opened slowly but spectacularly with Darna Mana Hai in 2003 directed by Prawaal Raman. Originally a harmless photographer looking at a hotel accommodation for one night, Anil is converted into a murdering anti-smoking fanatic by the obsessive owner (Boman Irani), who also kills guests who smoke!

From here, producer Ram Gopal Varma (the Columbus for this Machiavellian side of Saif!) cast him as a sheer blackguard in his next production, Ek Hasina Thi (2004), directed by that auteur of twisted crime thrillers, Sriram Raghavan, as his debut film. Sriram gave Saif’s Karan Singh leeway to get away with his misdeeds, only to give him an unthinkably macabre end!

His next dark role, Being Cyrus (2005), was a milestone for Saif Ali Khan. It was his first English film and was completely narrated from his perspective and how his Parsi character, Cyrus, evolves into a devious schemer and a murderer and gets away, unlike in Ek Hasina Thi. The film marked his first associations with Dinesh Vijan, who became his producer partner for a while, and director Homi Adajania, who went on to work with Saif’s daughter, Sara Ali Khan in another whodunit, Murder Mubarak, last year.

Up next is what is considered his most vicious character, in Omkara (2006), for which he even won an award and many nominations. As Langda Tyagi, he was the epitome of evil in the ensemble cast dark thriller adapted from William Shakespeare’s Othello.

This was followed by his terrorist avatar in Rensil D’Silva’s Kurbaan (2009). The plot was a shade implausible, but Saif as the devious man who was also a ‘devoted’ husband shone in another dark area.

And then of course came what emerged as Saif’s biggest hit as an evildoer, Tanhaji—The Unsung Warrior (2020). It marked his return to total villainy after 11 years, as the real-life historical character of Udaybhan Singh, mortal enemy of Shivaji’s lieutenant, Tanhaji. Again, his death sequence was crackling, and masterfully devised and executed by director Om Raut.

A charismatic political leader and a doggedly ambitious manipulator—by now, who could enact even a blackguard neta as evilly as this Un-‘safe’ hero, Saif Ali Khan? His character of Samar Pratap in Tandav was another example of excellent casting as director Ali Abbas Zafar got him to excel in this web series, Saif’s second one after Sacred Games, in which his character had a lot more of black than in his turn as Inspector Sartaj Singh in that series.

From Udaybhan Singh to Lankesh a.k.a. Raavan: Om Raut took a giant leap with Saif for his next venture, Adipurush (2023), in which Saif played the king of Lanka, but in a rather stereotypical “villain” avatar. We expected a lot more from this layered character, especially spotlighting his psyche as a man with good characteristics as well.

Finally, in the still-successful running Hindi-Telugu bi-lingual, Devara Part 1, Saif is Bhaira, a man who goes wayward in his greed for Mammon. He thus becomes the villain and plots to murder his idealistic fellow-chieftain of a group of fishing villages, Devara.

Among our leading men, Sanjay Dutt probably ranks next for his baddie roles, but his performances have tended to be more uni-dimensional and gimmicky, and the roles too lack the variety that marks Saif Ali Khan’s expertise at being a ‘safe’ and sassy scoundrel.

Also Read: Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan promote Swachh Bharat Campaign on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti