British born actor and martial artist Saj Ali has become a staple of the independent short film circuit with his own brand of high kicking high octane action. Having started training in martial arts a little later in life Saj’s impressive and agile skills moved from dojo to celluloid in award winning short films. Though he has only featured in a handful of productions Saj continues to step up his persona and skills on film with his eyes set on the action star prize.
Saj takes pride on his collaborations with other like minded performers and film makers, including David Cheung, and Lee Adamassie and all of whom met through the festival circuit. The films have a unique gritty feel with jaw dropping fight action that have won Saj and his collaborators various accolades around the world. Even in lockdown Saj never stops training and developing projects and we are pleased he has taken time out to speak to Cine Bijou.
So it was the real target that got you interested in making movies. In that film you play a character called Agent Blade and you get a fight scene of your own. You were given a real opportunity to showcase your presence and your fighting ability. How much of that choreography had your input and how much of it was down to the choreographer of the film?
David Cheung did the choreography and we shot the fight in this small room. David wanted me to showcase my kicking skills so that way, people can see what I can actually do. We had some different ideas on what to include. Some of the stuff we tried and we took out anything that didn’t suit the scene. We kept in the basic kicks but to a high standard as possible and the fight came out really well.
You look like you had a bit of fun with that you weren’t just doing the fighting but playing a part for the first time. Did you have any acting classes before you took on the role?
So let’s talk about ‘Thirsty’ as that’s quite an unusual film and you share a fight scene with another filmmaker Lee Admassie, and it’s one for which you’re the producer as well. How did that come about?
What happened was after I did ‘The Real Target I was at the Fighting Spirit Film Festival Where I met Lee. He had already made a film called ‘VSA’ with Jordan Rasta, and basically they asked me to play the main villain for a feature film. For various reasons that didn’t happen but at the same time Lee was writing a script for ‘Thirsty’. He couldn’t find the right person to work with on that film. Suddenly he asked “how would you feel about doing ‘Thirsty’ with me?” Well I was like, “yes sure no problem.” He sent me the script, asked me to read through it and left him know if I liked it. He said he wanted to do a very long action scene and that he wanted me to do it with him. So from that point onwards, that’s how it took place, we ended up meeting each other again for coffee and then we started rehearsals. It took quite a while, at least six months for the rehearsals and everything.
We spoke previously about some of the issues filming one of them being the location.
Yes. We were supposed to shoot where I live in Buckinghamshire and we shot there for about two or three days. First problem we had was that we couldn’t get a car into the field, because there was a big slope, and the river of course, so we shot a little bit of the portion of the film there. With the action, as far as the team was concerned we couldn’t film it there because we had walkers regularly walking past into shots,dog walkers as well but the worst part was the weather; the whole week it was chucking it down with rain. We decided to look for another location this time in London, Battersea Park. The fighting took about five or six days to shoot.
Obviously you’re happy with the finished result. How well was the film received?.
Amazing. I mean, we were just happy the film got selected for the [Fighting Spirit] festival. That alone if it was just that we would have been happy, but then we won an award and we were shocked.. After winning one award, we started being nominated for one another award one after the other. We won over 10 awards for action choreography. So that’s when we decided to do more films. This has really taken off with great feedback we got from people, including other film producers and directors. And then we got some messages, private messages from other people from all over saying, ‘well done, the film was amazing, when can we see it?’ So we started sending them the links to the films to watch.
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With action star Scott Adkins |
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David Cheung & Saj square off |
I can’t say too much about the film except as there is a twist in the story but I play an undercover soldier. You really need to watch the film to find out for yourself, who is the good guy and who’s the bad guy. There’s three people involved in the story so you need to figure out for yourself who’s who. The story itself is quite simple, it’s not a complicated film you just have to work out what’s happening.
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Saj with ‘Thirsty’ co-star Lee Admassie |
It was actually quite tough and it was a challenge for me because I hadn’t done this type of film before it was very different, and a step up from ‘Thirsty’. The location, again, was a problem – we always have fun with locations.We were meant to shoot in the woods, but that didn’t happen, so we have to move it to a warehouse. The type of moves that I had to do. I hadn’t done them before. Normally we train and rehearse on mats, in a safe environment.which I am used to. The warehouse was a little less safe and some of the moves were hard to do like a back flip off the sofa for example. That was just made up on the spot on the day and I didn’t know I was going to do that. We made up quite a few things on the spot to make it look real.
Okay, so in terms of film fighting style I know you were influenced by Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. However when choreographing a fight or working on an action scene where do you draw your influences from because there’s some solid ground fighting but there’s a lot of acrobatics as well.
Obviously, we’re all inspired by Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. Taking up martial arts got me into this whole thing. When ‘Real Target’ came up I wanted to improve my skills more so I started doing gymnastics and more acrobatic stuff. This led me to do more films. People want to see your skills, it has to be more than basic action. The more you can do, the better it is for me and the audience.
So you’re always looking for ways to improve and evolve and try new things like you did with ‘Undercover’?
That’s right there’s always room for improvement. You have to try new things.
As well as Shotokan Karate and Kickboxing (I noticed you do a little Capoeira in the film) do you include any other styles to add to your skill set?
Speaking of different things, and challenges managing the dialogue, I would imagine as an actor was quite a step up. Are there plans to step up the action side of you as a performer?
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