Saif Ali Khan says he hated himself on first day of Jewel Thief shooting

The film, produced by Siddharth Anand is based on a high octane battle surrounding a diamond heist. Khan, Ahlawat, and Anand recently appeared on IMDb, sharing their experience shooting the film  and behind the scenes anecdotes from the sets.

Speaking about what compelled them to do the film when they first heard the story, Khan said, "For me, it was the role and the story of a talented kind of person who has these dark skills and goes against the system. He’s a rebellious kind of guy who has made his way in the world.

"He’s a sympathetic character who has his heart in the right place and does things for the right reasons. He has a line in the film where he says that sometimes good people have to do bad things to save their family, and that was an important line for me."

Anand mentioned, "It’s a genre that I love watching and it’s always exciting to create something like this. I love to do things that push me and give me sleepless nights.” Ahlawat added, “For me, it was simple. Marflix, Netflix, Saif Sir, Siddharth, Mamta ma’am, and blonde Jaideep Ahlawat."

Discussing the first day of filming, Khan mentioned, "I remember my first day, it was very late at night. We started at 1AM. I would finish at about 5AM as the light came up. It was the first time I met Jaideep. As usual, I hated myself because it was the first day. Sometimes to be honest, I don’t know what I’m doing. It takes a while to get used to it, I was a little nervous. A little tired. A little lost."

He added, "I was shooting with Jaideep sir’s dog in the movie and it’s a massive rottweiler. I didn’t know they were that big. The owner said you can do whatever you want with it. I was feeding it biscuits and playing with it. At one point, I pulled it slightly. It growled at me in the most ferocious way and then he said that you can do what you want but don’t pull it."

Sharing what surprised them about each other, Ahlawat said, "I’m surprised just working with him (Saif). I’ve done something good that I’m working with him, that’s a surprise for me also.” Khan said, "I was surprised by how thin he was. The last time I saw him as Hathiram (Ahlawat’s character in Paatal Lok), he was looking quite solid.

"Here he was lean, mean, badass, very sexy, giving young Sanjay Dutt vibes to me. The other thing, I shouldn’t have been surprised but I was, was the commitment to the reality of the shots."