The much-awaited political drama series 'Tandav' starring actors Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Annup Sonii among others is all set to streamed on Amazon Prime Video on January 15.
While the posters and trailer of 'Tandav' was warmly received by fans, how the overall series fares will only be revealed post it's release. But, before that, actor Saif Ali Khan recently opened up about how he prepared for the role of Samar Pratap Singh, his reaction to parts of the series being shot at Pataudi Palance and more.
On being asked how he prepared for the role in 'Tandav', Saif said in a statement, "I think there are various influences that come into how you do something and prepare for a particular character. My character is a politician who tends to talk a lot in public places and so there were a lot of Sanskrit-ized Hindi speeches that I had to prepare for Samar's character. The fun fact here is – I absolutely love speaking Sanskrit. At times we have a heavy shooting day and there are times when we have a lighter day. In this show, I had to speak almost 4 Sanskrit speeches every day. So I had to learn a lot of heavy duty lines."
When asked what his reaction was on finding out that the makers planned to shoot parts of the series at Pataudi Palace and and how comfortable did he felt on filming there, he said, "We have shot a lot of sequences for the show in Pataudi Palace. I have spent maximum time in the palace than anywhere in the world. It's my home so it was extremely comfortable shooting there. I never mind giving it for shoots especially when I am working in any project. It is almost unused for 340 days. I like to think of it as commercial property and am happy to rent it out. But it does make me little bit nervous when the crew moves in. It was a pleasure staying there and shooting there. Dimple ji also stayed there with us. Rest of the shoot was done at the Imperial Hotel in Delhi. It was the most comfortable shoot that I have ever done."
On essaying a politician, Saif averred, "Rather than playing milky-white character, I do find this more interesting and experimental. I am glad that I am able to play Samar's character- vulnerable, fierce, authoritative and kind. It is like channeling a different part of your energy."
Asked if it's screen time that matters the most or the character arc and what made him say yes to 'Tandav', Saif said, "It is the importance of a character that I factor in. Given that it is a central character it fascinated me. Sometimes importance is not measured by the screen time. In-fact I might be happy to have less screen time sometimes. Usually, the importance of the character and its centrality is what I look for while choosing my characters."
