As Saif Ali Khan prepares for his upcoming Netflix cop drama 'Kartavya', the actor has revisited the improbable start of his journey in police uniforms, a 1994 comedy that unapologetically copied a Hollywood film, and a director who told him he would never succeed in a serious cop role. However, the path between those two points, as Saif recently disclosed in a candid interview, is far from straightforward. It involves a blatantly plagiarized Hollywood film, a blunt director, years of self-doubt, and at the very beginning, a runaway horse with Sunil Dutt coming to the rescue.
Saif Ali Khan Opens Up on 'Main Khiladi Tu Anari'
Before 'Sacred Games' and 'Kartavya', there was 'Main Khiladi Tu Anari', the 1994 comedy in which Saif Ali Khan first wore a police uniform. However, as he explains, he was not actually playing a cop. Speaking to Dainik Jagran, Khan said, "The first time I wore a police uniform was in the '90s in a comedy film. I was playing an actor who had to portray a cop. So, he studies under Akshay Kumar, who was playing a cop in the film. It was a fun movie, which we copied from an American film without taking any rights. We just lifted and copied the American film 'The Hard Way'."
For context, 'Main Khiladi Tu Anari', directed by Sameer Malkan, heavily borrowed from the 1991 Michael J. Fox and James Woods buddy-comedy 'The Hard Way', in which an actor shadows a detective for a role. The Hindi version transplanted the premise with Akshay Kumar as the no-nonsense cop and Saif as the film star learning the ropes. It was a box office hit and remains fondly remembered, even though its source material was never formally credited.
Director's Blunt Advice That Haunted Saif Ali Khan
What stuck with Saif from that film was not the box office numbers, but what his director told him off-camera. "My director told me, 'Never play a cop. It's a very serious thing to do. Big stars with a lot of presence play cops. You do romantic comedies, don't play a cop,'" Khan revealed. This comment lodged itself in Khan's psyche and stayed there for years, quietly coloring every subsequent police role he took on. "That fear always remained. Later, when I started playing cops, I think until 'Sacred Games', I always felt maybe I couldn't pull it off. I've grown up in this business. I've spent more of my life on camera than off it. People have watched me from my 20s till 55, for better or worse. Hopefully, there have been some changes. I've grown up, and the fact that I can now play a cop is huge for me because that director used to laugh at me and say, 'Never do it,'" Khan stated.
The irony is that 'Sacred Games', the 2018 Netflix series in which Saif played Mumbai police officer Sartaj Singh, became one of the defining performances of his career. The role reset audience perception of him entirely, earning him critical acclaim that felt genuinely hard-won after decades in the industry.
About 'Kartavya'
'Kartavya' arrives on Netflix on May 15 and marks Saif's return to the police uniform in a markedly different register from 'Sacred Games'. Directed by Pulkit and produced by Gauri Khan under the Red Chillies Entertainment banner, the film follows a cop navigating the grinding tension between duty, conscience, and the personal cost of every decision he makes, set against a taut investigative backdrop that explores themes of justice, morality, and consequence. The ensemble cast includes Rasika Dugal, Zakir Hussain, Sanjay Mishra, Saurabh Dwivedi, and Manish Chaudhari.
