Emraan Hashmi, like most of the characters he has played so far, has all but time on his side. Out to promote his latest film “Rush”, he reveals that he had been shooting till 4 a.m. the night before and has had “barely two hours of sleep”. His eyes seem to affirm the statement.
Excerpts from an interview:
What is your character in “Rush”?
Sam is a crime and investigative journalist. He works with a TV channel, he anchors a news show. He’s an urban, Delhi guy who’s ambitious, has his own ethical code in terms of what journalism should be, which I think differs from person to person. There seems to be a line that you don’t cross, and he’s very clear about that line.
What kind of research did the role involve?
I’ve been interacting with the media for the past six to seven years before I took up this role, so in that way it’s been on subconsciously. But for the parts of the news anchor I had to see it before shooting to learn that more minutely — things like how to read news from a prompter. Other than that I learnt from news anchors by watching them and just Youtube-ing them.
Like the other characters you play on screen, Sam too seems to have a penchant for getting into a soup…
I feel they are characters that are real, that are flawed. They’re not the ones that do traditionally good things, they challenge that. At the same time they realise the things that they do and, often, there is redemption. Sometimes they pay for it — they die — and sometimes they get away with it.
Upcoming films?
“Ghanchakkar”, “Ungli”, “Ek Thi Daayan” and a couple of untitled films already in the pipeline.
Does so much shooting take a toll physically?
I usually have to oscillate between gaining weight to drastically reducing and putting on muscle for some films, and I have to take that on continuously because I’m shooting for so many films. Night and day shoots are extremely taxing and usually my sleep just goes for a complete toss. These days it’s become extremely taxing… I’m working on getting around them.
