But Saif Ali Khan proved me wrong on all counts. He turned out to be a thorough professional.

Khan was very ‘corporate’ in his demeanour, taking us in for the interview as soon as we got there, giving us candid answers about his experiences as a first-time producer with “Love Aaj Kal”, being open about his relationship with Kareena Kapoor and making no bones about us appearing unannounced with a camera.

Perhaps Khan’s most interesting response was when we asked him about working with other production houses after he has worked on his own.Khan compared it to a ‘dinner party’.Working in your own production is like hosting a dinner, he said, while working in other films is like being a guest at somebody else’s party where you pick up tips (or not) for your next do…

All of these dinner party ‘hosts’ and their ‘guests’ have their idiosyncrasies when dealing with the press. But the deciding factor has to be their standing on the popularity charts.

Case in point- the otherwise reticent and media-unfriendly Saif Ali Khan. He had a lot to say during the interview and was surprisingly comfortable talking to us — I call this the success effect.

Do you think success makes celebrities more media-savvy?