Actor Saiyami Kher is fresh off the recent world premiere of her latest film, Vikram Phadnis' Pal Bhar Ke Liye, at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, and gearing up for her next release, her first collaboration with veteran director Priyadarshan, Haiwaan. The action thriller, which is Priyadarshan's 99th film, is an adaptation of the director's Malayalam hit Oppam (2016), and stars Kher alongside Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan, who are reuniting on screen nearly two decades since Tashan (2008).
In the lead up to the Haiwaan's September 11 release, Kher spoke to THR India about Haiwaan, working with Priyadarshan for the first time, watching Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan look back on 'the good old days', Akshay Kumar's competitive side during on-set games, and working with Suchitra Pillai.
Right before she joined the sets of Pal Bhar Ke Liye this January, Kher had wrapped shooting for Haiwaan in December. The shoot, spread across Ooty, Kochi and Mumbai, is one she describes as unlike anything she's experienced. "It was a picnic. I've never been on a film set like this," she says, pointing to Priyadarshan's on-point, one-take style. "Usually we're used to 12-hour shifts that can even become 14. With this film, we'd shoot for two or three hours and be done for the day."
"Like the first few days, Saif was just like, 'Wait, is it done? I'm just warming up.' Priyan Sir (Priyadarshan) is so clear about his edit that he would just say that, 'No, I don't want this, I don't want this'," she recalls.
She calls the director's precision on set a rarity. "He knows exactly what he wants — two lines from here, the next four from there. So he doesn't want you to say the dialogue more than the two lines. If I had a paragraph, he'd say I'm going to cut it to this, so stop there. Technically, it's something only a very sound technician could pull off — because he knows exactly what he wants."
Kher recalls that quick shoot days meant plenty of time on set to play cricket, card games and even games made up on the spot with Akshay Kumar, who, she remarks, can be highly competitive.
"You cannot be sitting idle with Akshay — there's constant activity on set, because he has to be doing something," she reveals.
The actor laughs as she admits that a large part of her memories from set are of playing games with her co-stars. "We were so occupied, because we were constantly playing, and he (Kumar) would just make a game up at every point."
Kumar's playfulness, she added, did not stop when the film wrapped. "Even after we finished shoot, we'd meet on Sundays to play cricket together and he (Kumar) is so competitive. He really doesn't like losing, so it's great fun to play with him."
Watching Kumar and Khan together, reuniting after nearly two decades, was its own kind of nostalgia trip. "They would be cracking up on jokes from the '80s and the '90s. It used to be like a big outing with healthy food, and just them reminiscing over older times — then they’d be like, 'Oh, times have changed so much!'"
Haiwaan also brought Kher and actor Suchitra Pillai together, a duo that would collaborate again just a month later on Pal Bhar Ke Liye. The film also reunited Pillai and Khan, who had worked together on Dil Chahta Hai (2001). Kher gushed, "Seeing Saif and Suchitra together, working again after Dil Chahta Hai, was like my whole childhood in front of my eyes!"