For over a year now, there seems to be a certain stability. Has Saif actually hit upon consistency? Yet somehow everyone who has been watching awaits yet another change. Maybe ’cause people expect Saif Ali Khan to shock! He had only started his career when he’d decided it was time to marry. While it did surprise many, the ease with which he took to parenthood was all the more astounding. It took years at a stretch playing second fiddle and significant nothing to many actors…till finally Saif arrived, shocking a lot of his critics in the bargain. The marriage, which people had even stopped speculating about, all of a sudden, ended… A whole new Saif rose up with Rosa… and then the Casanova image… the image that somehow is refusing to die, despite the ardent lover in him, wanting to break free. Bebo, the tattoo, the trips, the production house, his sense of humour… somehow you never know what he is up to… Maybe the real Saif stands eclipsed behind the projected Saif that the media harps about? …Caught him in his orange pjs and even brighter coloured retro-glasses glaring right through them at me. I told him I could never understand what his mood-for-the-day was… “You kidding me, I have the most transparent face!” I don’t believe any actor who says that; diplomacy is the mantra for even aspiring actors. He asked for his customary cuppa coffee before saying, “I don’t speak my heart out to all but if I feel strongly about something then I do go up to the person and tell them whatever it is. I think whatever you do should be genuine and you should feel it. That doesn’t mean we should judge people who are not expressive of their feelings. It is fine, really!” He tried the old trick of making everyone happy which, with the passing of time, has gotten tougher given the fact that the industry is filled with two-faced people… “It is important to know who your friends are and who are not! Never confuse the two. It is not like you can’t make friends here… If people are not being two-faced and are genuine, then you can be yourself with them. If you know they are the backbiting sorts, you again know how to be around them. And you work and go away… The idea is to spend your time and waste your emotions where it is safe. The rest of the time you play the game!” Drumming his fingers on the AGENT VINOD script sitting atop his table, he confessed, “I do try to mask my feelings, I don’t want to upset anybody, but then I think we can all pretend. We are all pretty similar; we can all be a little fake from time to time. The idea is to be consistent and if you are, people will respect that. Especially in our industry, there are people who are respected for being genuine and there are some who are universally ridiculed for being fake.” Since I had clearly caught Saif on one of those rare days when he was in the mood to talk, I decided to push my luck a little… quickly ask him everything there was to him… his likes, dislikes... even his quirks... “Quirks? I have tremendous method to my madness! You can ask Abdul, my spot boy. Everything has to be like clockwork. I can’t put my finger on a particular habit I have… I do it because I don’t think it is quirky. It is quite regular. But I like atmosphere… the right atmosphere for the right event. Whether it is dinner or lunch or a story-sitting or anything, it has to have the right ambience. Setting is important. Hence, I like having a verandah here; you can sit here and get creative just looking out of the window at the tree tops. We just get together here and talk! What I am trying to say is; creating atmosphere is necessary.” I could imagine all the candles etc… “What I do have is an ottoman, actually three ottomans and an extra-large sofa with Jaipuri razais. Give me that and I become a vegetable for about a month. I can sit, watch movies, read, listen to music… ” Now he is talking; movies are always the best bonding topic… What are his favourites, what did he grow up watching, a lot of his mommy’s films, maybe?