Emraan Hashmi clarifies that he will not make Awarapan 2 to cash in on nostalgia after Ba***ds of Bollywood: ‘They have spent seven years preparing it’ | Bollywood News & more related news here

“I don’t think anyone owes anyone anything. But it has been fruitful. You don’t plan this. You just do good work. How things are accepted, exploited and loved by the public is not in our hands as artists. We have put the same amount of honesty and hard work into all these projects. It’s just that virality is not in our hands,” Emraan tells SCREEN in an exclusive interview. He points out that not just The Ba***ds of Bollywood, but his latest film, Suparn Varma’s period social drama Haq, has also received a lot of love. “It’s good that Ba***ds worked out and that cameo was successful. Apparently Haq is a big hit. He’s at No. 6 on the global charts,” says Hashmi.

Emraan Hashmi in Haq.

His latest appearance on the streaming platform is Neeraj Pandey’s thriller show Taskaree, which is set in the world of customs officials at airports. “I feel there should have been some kind of tribute to the customs officials and the work they did without demanding any recognition in return. They are just doing their duty. But it is very hard work, and the credit is due to them. Unfortunately, nothing had been done to them, but yes, better late than never. It is a sight that applauds their work for so many years in our country,” says Hashmi.

At the trailer launch, Hashmi joked that he was often asked to step aside at the immigration counter because his “profile probably matched someone else’s.” Not only him but even Shah Rukh Khan were often not spared from the US immigration office. Ironically, he was asked to step aside at an airport, just like his character Rizwan Khan in Karan Johar’s 2010 romantic political drama My Name Is Khan. He later joked that every time he starts to feel like a star, a visit to the United States ends up punishing him.

“I would declare my goods in the red channel, and I wouldn’t feel pompous that customs would let me through if I have goods to declare. But I think, hopefully, after this show, we will all take the central channel and go through the red and green channels,” jokes Hashmi. He believes that it is also the ‘profiling’ of the public that continues to haunt not only him, but also the country’s biggest superstars. “Shah Rukh Khan has this (opens his arms). The Kkkk… (from Yash Chopra’s 1991 hit romantic thriller Darr) is still haunting him. Salman Khan has his shirt off and his belt hook Dabangg. Everyone tries to label things. I don’t think we should take it seriously. I’m sure these artists don’t take it seriously either,” argues Hashmi.

Emraan Hashmi in Taskaree.

The ‘serial kisser’ tag continues to change him even to this day, ever since his 2004 blockbuster, Anurag Basu’s romantic thriller Murder. “Colloquially, popular culture draws things that have a sticking point. No one knows what that sticking point is. You just go out and do your thing. It just so happened that in my films, this turned out to be a sticking point. You don’t run away from it. You own it more than anything,” Hashmi says with a shrug.

Even at the trailer launch of Taskaree, Hashmi’s co-star Zoya Afroz was asked if erotica was part of her arsenal on the show. She admitted that when she told someone that she was doing a show with Hashmi, they looked at her askance. “Emraan has taught an entire generation about romance and passion. Why would you run away from that?” he told SCREEN. Emraan said that Zoya confessed to him that she had to secretly watch her films at home when she was a child because she was not allowed to watch them.

“It’s an inherent part of my career, and it’s not something I run away from. You have to own up to everything you do. There are no regrets, and the audience loves you for that. So it’s okay. They also appreciate the different types of things you do as an actor. And then they appreciate the more tailor-made commercial themes, which is something I’m proud of. I love it because they are tongue-in-cheek characters,” explains Hashmi. To his credit, the actor has often ventured outside that comfort zone to attempt films like Haq, Dibakar Banerjee’s 2012 political thriller Shanghai, and Raj Kumar Gupta’s 2013 black comedy Ghanchakkar. “It’s an interesting film. It’s underrated, but it’s a great black comedy,” agrees Hashmi.

Emraan Hashmi in Awarapan.

Would Hashmi returning to make Awarapan 2 now undo all the efforts he has made to undo his past image? “I am not doing Awarapan 2 out of nostalgia. This film has been in the planning for the last seven years. We just stumbled upon a script. We were postponing a sequel, but when we read a script following Shivam’s journey, we got it done. We are not cashing in,” says Hashmi.

One would imagine that Hashmi’s return to Vishesh Films would be an obvious move after the resurgence of that image following her cameo in Ba***ds of Bollywood. “We have done that in the past, and a lot of people have participated in it. But we have to see that the audience has now become very intelligent and insightful. Social media is a very complicated business. You can’t be fake about anything. If you have a good script and your heart is in the right place, you will make a good film. That’s all,” clarifies Hashmi.

It’s no coincidence that Bilal Siddiqi wrote The Ba***ds of Bollywood and Awarapan 2. But Hashmi claims that he and Bilal go back a long way. “I met him through a mutual friend, Hussain Zaidi. He wrote The Bard of Blood (2015), which was the book I released with Hussain sir. We wrote a book (The Kiss of Life, 2016) together about my son and his cancer journey. Since then, he has been a member of the family. And then, Ba***ds and “Akha Bollywood”, that’s him. And now, he is writing Awarapan 2. Right now he is more a family than a friend,” says Hashmi.

Also Read: Emraan Hashmi calls Bollywood actors ‘insecure’, wonders how many would do a film like Haq; explains why Animal worked

The actor is excited to once again be the face of unforgettable hits. “But there are no songs in this show. There is no customs officer singing at the airport to people on the red and green channel while throwing bags into the X-ray machine. That would have been another show,” he jokes. He adds that all he did over the years was walk in style down an empty hallway, and the music became instantly iconic.

“They don’t know that the choreographer gave me steps, but I was too lazy to do them,” says Hashmi, smiling. When I remind him that he shook his leg (or rather, his finger) in Aksar’s “Jhalak Dikhla Ja” (2005), he quickly recreates the step and says, “That’s it, that’s as far as it goes.” But didn’t he also do the uninhibited thing? cheap Dancing in Shanghai? “That Dibakar personally showed me every move on the set. I was just imitating him,” adds Hashmi, still smiling.