A Exclusive Interview with Saif Ali Khan on Race 2
What are the challenges involved playing the same character from Race 1?
I think the main challenges would probably lay with the scriptwriter and the production to try and make a better movie than the first one. If the film does well, sequel becomes quite fashionable now. In our industry, people follow trends when a film does well. As for playing the role, makes it much easier as I’ve done it before, but physically there is more action so a lot more work.
How did the Race 2 cast differ from Race 1?
First of all I’d like to say that I missed the cast from Race 1, there was something special about the first one, Akshay Khanna is a phenomenal actor, Katrina was on the rise, Bipasha was looking great, it was a good a year. When the production said they want to make further production of Race, I was really excited. If you can convince a leading man like John Abraham to play such role and make it cooler than the first one, then it works. We have good star cast, all good.
You’ve worked with Deepika, are you worried your pairing will get repetitive?
No not really, you know this is not something I really thought about. The films are all entirely different, so it worked out for us. In fact I think it is an advantage because it is a successful pairing and I think people would like to see it. I do thing it is a time that I work with somebody else, pay more attention to the casting.
Was this a continuation form the first one or completely different story?
Its not completely different, it picks up a similar trend but works around it. You probably don’t have to see the first one to understand the second one.
Will it have more twist and turns?
It has some in it; I think those are one of the things a lot of people enjoy. So yeah it does.
How much working out did you have to do for Race 2?
Quite a lot, I thought I’d get away with doing less but then you come and see John Abraham walking around without a shirt on, so back to the gym for me it was. It had to be done.
If you were to do Race 3, which actor would you pick against you?
That is difficult to answer, somebody who is great would be nice as long as they agree to the part. I wouldn’t be concerned with working with anyone. If I say my role is the best, then nobody would want to work with me. It’s Race, and Race is all me (laughs).
What is unique about Race 2?
Like I said, they worked hard to find the kind of script being torn from the original, first half is a revenge sort of drama, second half is simply a nice movie.
