I always want to be the hero

Mumbai: Saif Ali Khan is still recuperating from a stomach infection. Life hasn't stopped for him though. After an animated meeting with his team about his next production, Saif settles on the sofa...soon after, he has plans to go catch Kurbaan with Kareena Kapoor, the lady who has been the love of his life for a while now. "You need to have that special connect, that special feeling, which only true love can bring," he says with his cheeky smile.

Saif says that even though he is an emotional person, he tends to run away from over emotional situations. "I guess men are like that...they want to escape from something that seems too deep or too uncomfortable," he says with a laugh.

Kareena had told us earlier that Saif is more emotionally vulnerable than her. Tell him that and he says with a glint in his eye, "Did she say that? I must be."

But Saif says more than love, it's the respect that is of utmost importance in his relationship with Kareena. "If I don't treat her like an individual and give her all the respect and trust she deserves, I don't know what relationship we are talking about. I am immensely proud of Kareena as an individual and I don't see myself holding her back from anything. I respect her decisions and so does she."

Saif plays a terrorist in Karan Johar's Kurbaan, in which Kareena plays his girlfriend.Saif says it's more challenging to play gray roles than playing an out-and-out baddie. "Omkara was challenging because it was a different language. But I think it's easier to play a bad guy than a good guy. Let's compare angels and demons -- it's so much more beautiful to play an angel, but there are so many more layers to a demon," he says. "In Race, I was offered the bad character, but I wanted the gray one. I think there is a lot more excitement and challenge in playing those kind of roles. At the end of the day, I always want to be the hero."

Not really an aggressively ambitious person, Saif says he has never aspired even to be an icon. "I mean, I didn't give up smoking because I want my fans to quit. I gave up because it was affecting my health. In the same way, I know some people look up to me, but I don't consciously follow a kind of lifestyle to impress them or keep an image. I have been brought up well, so I would like to think it's imperative to lead a decent life."