Subhash K Jha/TNN

Mumbai, Jul 6: How far to go with the comfort level? That was Saif’s dilemma.Though they’ve acted together in J.P Dutta’s LOC and Yashraj Films’ Tashan, Saif Ali Khan had so far not done intimate scenes with his lady love Kareena.

But in Rensil d’Silva’s film which he insists on calling Jehad, Saif finally gets up close and personal with the love of his life. Says Saif, “It’s a love story. A very passionate story with a relevant and disturbing theme. And yes there’re kissing scenes. See, Rensil is shooting a very real and contemporary film. We can’t have flowers touching one another to show intimacy. At the same time we wouldn’t do anything that would make us squirm while watching the film with our parents. Yes, there’re scenes of kissing and intimacy which have been done tastefully and within the limits of decorum.”

Saif says he had to be constantly conscious of the fact that it was the woman he loved he was making love to on screen. “Obviously having her as my co-star made it easier to be intimate. And it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to say I’ve done intimate scenes with other co-stars and doing them with Kareena was the same. But that won’t be true. Having her with me made me feel more responsible. I didn’t want to end showing off my relationship by accentuating the intimacy. So it was a double-edged sword. At the end of the day we’re all actors. But this was different. If we had to do the same scenes with other
co-stars we may not have been as comfortable.Yes. Definitely I was more comfortable sharing intimacy with Kareena on screen than I was with other actors.”

Considering the film belongs more to Saif, is he happy to see Kareena take the backseat? “It’s hard to say whose film it is. It’s her movie as much as mine. Hers is a great role with great dramatic potential.”

Now having completed Rensil’s film Saif and Kareena are off on their mysterious holiday. “We’re flying out of New York this week, stopping over at London, a city we both love for a few days and then we’re in Italy for our holiday. ... Yeah one likes to be a bit private about the holidays. But then in this day age nothing is private. And I’m not Johnny Depp to have stalkers following me to my holiday. I don’t think Indians fans are that obsessive. And if some Indian fan follows us to Italy he should be applauded for his resilience.”