Saif Ali Khan on working with Priyadarshan in Haiwaan: It can spoil you

Saif Ali Khan has opened up about working with Priyadarshan for the first time in Haiwaan. He said the director's clarity, discipline and inventiveness made the experience deeply rewarding.Saif Ali Khan on collaborating with Priyadarshan in HaiwaanSaif Ali Khan may have worked across genres and with some of the biggest names in Indian cinema, but his first collaboration with filmmaker Priyadarshan has arrived at a point in his career when the actor feels better equipped to take on the filmmaker’s world. In Haiwaan, Saif plays a visually challenged character, marking his first film with Priyadarshan.Looking back, Saif admits that the pairing may not have made as much sense to him earlier in his career. He credits the timing of their collaboration for making the experience particularly rewarding.“The first impression was just this massive body of work and how many varied films he had done and what a prolific director he was and what a calm and cool personality. When I was younger, I thought perhaps our worlds, I was wondering how we would match because I wasn’t very well trained as an actor. I kind of knew how to do certain kind of rom-com but I didn’t know if I’d fit into his world. Even though he’s got different genres, I don’t know how good I would have been, but I think we met at the right time where I understand a little bit more of what’s expected of me now,” Saif shared.For the actor, the biggest revelation has been Priyadarshan’s working style. Known for films that move effortlessly between comedy, drama and commercial entertainment, the filmmaker appears to bring the same economy and precision to his sets. Saif says that clarity has made the experience unusually liberating. “I really enjoyed working with him more than I’ve enjoyed working with anyone because he’s so economical and doesn’t waste any time and is so clear on what he wants that second-guessing and wondering and insecurity is just not there. I like being productive in the morning and getting on with it and finishing on time and not going on forever till everybody is exhausted so that there’s a high level of productivity and focus and energy. It can spoil you, you’ll find it hard to work with other people after you work with him because of how disciplined he is,” he shared. Saif also recalled an incident that, for him, captured Priyadarshan’s ability to make quick decisions without compromising on the creative vision. During one sequence, the filmmaker was unhappy with a group of violin players and decided to replace them. The replacement musicians had to travel from Andheri to South Mumbai, yet the schedule still wrapped hours ahead of time.“He’s also really artistic, he once packed up a bunch of violin players because he didn’t like them. They were not what he wanted, he wanted a different quality. We still finished three hours early, he packed them up from Town (South Mumbai), the new lot came from Andheri, and we still finished three hours early because that’s how he shoots,” Saif said.What seemed to impress Saif just as much was watching Priyadarshan navigate humour within a film that is otherwise markedly different from the director’s better-known comic entertainers. Haiwaan is not a comedy, but Saif says there are moments of humour that offered him a glimpse into the filmmaker’s distinctive approach.“It’s not about finishing early, it’s about wasting time and it’s amazing how he gets things out and to watch him directing comedy, this is not a comedy but there’s some comedy elements and I actually saw how he directs it. If you just copy him as an actor that’s all you have to do. He’s a great actor also, he is a very calm, direct, very interesting person,” he shared. Saif was also struck by Priyadarshan’s ability to turn limitations into part of the visual language of a scene. He recalled an instance when the director disliked a parking lot location and used the nature of Saif’s character to solve the problem creatively.“He’s also very clever because I remember he didn’t like a parking lot once so he shot the scene really dark because it’s a blind character so he’s saying it’ll be hard for him, let’s not see the thing, so he’s super clever and it was a real treat for me and a blessing for me to get such a good director and such a good role at this stage of my career, I can’t get over it,” he shared.Haiwaan is scheduled to release in theatres on September 11.- EndsPublished By: bhavna agarwalPublished On: Sep 1, 2026 13:18 IST