Filmmaking is not about spreading awareness: Saif Ali Khan

When asked if he would like to make a sports movie to spread awareness about the importance of sports, Saif says cinema is the business of trying to entertain people. It is not about spreading awareness; it’s about making entertaining films.

Paan Singh Tomar (2012), Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013) and Mary Kom set the trend. Now we have films on Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni, and legendary hockey player Dhyan Chand in the making. With sports legends being celebrated on the big screen, Saif Ali Khan feels it would be interesting to make a film on the life of his father and cricket legend, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.

In fact,

says he would love to play the part. Only, he isn’t as good looking. He says, "It would be very interesting to make a film on his life. Though it would be difficult to put anecdotes of his experiences in a film, but if done, it would be an exciting movie. I’d love to play my father, but I don’t think I’m as handsome as him."

In this interview, he also elaborates on sports films.

Are films a good way to spread awareness about sports?

Cinema is the business of trying to entertain people. Film-making, to me, is not about spreading awareness; it’s about making entertaining films. You’re asking people for their money, not to give them a lecture. If it happens to be a fun film that is about sports, then great. The bottom line is entertainment, no strings attached.

Why do great athletes still need actors to tell people what they have achieved?

The fact that these films are being made, awareness is being spread, and it’s leading to the athletes getting respect, is the positive way of looking at it. More people are aware of what a great sprinter Milkha Singh was after the movie. Any kind of fame doesn’t last very long unless people are constantly made aware of it. The younger generation isn’t really aware of what happened in the past. So, sometimes, people need to be reminded.

Which sport would you select if you were to do a film?

I would select the most dramatic film. It could be anything; but it has to be a human story at the end of it. It could be football, like Escape To Victory (1981); I want to show it to my son. I think it’s a really cool movie. That’s about football and also about prisoners of war in Nazi Germany, which is definitely a bigger story. It can even be on cricket, which would be an interesting film. I don’t have much personal experience, but I have personal awareness of the game.