If Bollywood thinks it doesn’t need foreign audiences it will lose out, top Indian actor Saif Ali Khan says

With Indian film industry on fringes of global entertainment, actor says ‘We don’t need validation from outside … but we will lose just catering to ourselves’

Khan, who appeared in the first original Netflix series from India, crime thriller Sacred Games, says streaming is contributing to an industry ‘renaissance’

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Bollywood and Netflix star Saif Ali Khan says that India’s film industry needs to go global instead of only catering to its Indian audience. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:06pm, 30 Jan 2020Updated: 4:06pm, 30 Jan 2020

Saif Ali Khan, bona fide Bollywood royalty and star of Netflix hit Sacred Games, says India’s massive film industry does not need international audiences to thrive.

But that may not be a good thing, he cautions.

The 49-year-old actor, whose latest film, Jawaani Jaaneman (“Youthful Lover”), is released on Friday, has starred in multiple blockbusters over the years, from Dil Chahta Hai (“The Heart Desires”) in 2001 to Tanhaji, released earlier this month.

Yet even as foreign films – such as South Korean hit Parasite – find viewers and awards overseas, Bollywood has remained on the fringes of global entertainment, content to target India’s 1.3 billion population and millions of others from the diaspora.

(From left) Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna in Dil Chahta Hai.

“The thing about our culture … is that we don’t really need verification, validation, appreciation from an outside culture,” Khan says in Mumbai. “There are so many of us that if we just keep each other happy then we don’t financially need anything.”