His last two films, Ek Thi Daayan and Ghanchakkar, failed to recreate the Emraan Hashmi effect at the box office. For the most part of last year the actor was fighting his son’s illness, which threw a lot of his professional plans off-track. But all that is put behind now. “By God’s grace my son is absolutely fine now and I am very thankful for that. It was the toughest time for us. That was one time in my life that I lost focus on everything else that was happening around me. I have to thank my filmmakers for being patient with me and adjusting to my schedule,” says Emraan, who is eagerly waiting to see how the audience reacts to his just released film Raja Natwarlal, his first release this year.
The actor says he never feels the pressure of “Rs 100 crore” that seems to be the driving force of the industry. Emraan says, “I feel most actors and filmmakers are in a mad rush to touch the 100-crore mark. A few filmmakers I know start celebrating and throwing parties the minute their films touch Rs 85 crore. I feel that the idea is to prove a point to the industry and trade gurus. I have no intention of competing with anyone.” He continues, “The budget of a film that has a top league actor would be nothing less than Rs 60-70 crore. My films are made with a budget of Rs 15-20 crore. Now if I can manage to get a business worth Rs 70-80 crore, while other actors touch the Rs 100-crore mark, what’s the big deal? Keeping that calculation in mind, I feel my films do better business.”
The actor says that he has tremendous respect for Aamir Khan. Without mincing words Emraan says, “He is one of the few actors who doesn’t forge figures of the business of his films. I genuinely feel that Talaash was brilliant; he could’ve gone hammer and tongs about the reviews and the business the film garnered. But he neither went on a self-promotion spree nor did he exaggerate the profits. Aamir maintains that Talaash did Rs 80 crore-odd business. That speaks volumes about his confidence in himself and his honesty towards his work.”
When Ek Thi Daayan and Ghanchakkar fizzled out it was a tough time for Emraan. In both these films he had tried to go off the beaten track and explore himself as an actor. “It does hurt because there is a lot of hard work and money that is invested in making a film. It is upsetting when it goes down the drain. I understand that the audience wants to see a certain actor in a certain image, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Honestly, I value failure as much as success. Failure teaches you to work on yourself and the mistakes you’ve made. It makes you a better actor,” he says.
“I know I am the glorified onscreen bad boy,” he adds with a smile. He says he is unapologetic about being the man everyone fears to work with. “I didn’t feel any reluctance from Konkona Sen Sharma or Vidya Balan. But I do confess that my reputation precedes me. Bhatt saab had once told me that most new actresses would have similar reservations working with Prem Chopra or Ajit. Back then they were the villains. The trend has changed. Villains are the new heroes now.”
His image of an onscreen serial kisser has been overused and abused. Point out to him that there have been actors like Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn who have managed to churn out superhits without resorting to sensuality, and Emraan says, “Every actor makes his own choice. Both Salman and Ajay are brilliant actors. They have an image and a loyal audience. I’d like to believe that I’m a good actor and I have my niche audience. I was told that parents don’t want their children to watch my films because of their sexual undertone. But I know for a fact that college kids do manage to grab DVDs of my films and that’s what makes me popular. That is my audience.” And has his son watched any of his films? “Yes! He has watched Ghanchakkar. But he is too young to watch his father romancing and kissing other women on screen,” he says with a laugh.
He has a tendency to surprise his audience and his next film Ungli is proof of that. “Ungli raised many eyebrows. No one could imagine that Emraan Hashmi and Karan Johar would come together for a film. After all, we belong to completely different schools of cinema,” Emraan says. And how is he like outside of cinema? “I am a different person. I know that most people who don’t know me will never believe that I’m an introvert and an extremely shy person. Calm, confident and shy is how I would describe myself in three words,” he says.
