In badass company

Emraan Hashmi on working with Milan Luthria and how his forthcoming film straddles the worlds of fiction and reality

August 28, 2017 08:45 pm | Updated 08:45 pm IST

Mumbai: File photo of Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi. PTI Photo  (Story LST 27)(PTI8_20_2017_000097B)

Mumbai: File photo of Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi. PTI Photo (Story LST 27)(PTI8_20_2017_000097B)

Seven years ago, while shooting for Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai , its director Milan Luthria narrated a gripping story based on real life events to Emraan Hashmi. In 1976, at the height of the Emergency, a truck loaded with gold was transported out of a palace in Rajasthan, guarded by a convoy of army jeeps and police vans. Somewhere during the journey, it just vanished. “ Baadshaho draws inspiration from the story and goes on a fictional journey of four thugs who come to rob the truck,” says Emraan Hashmi who is teaming up with his Once Upon a Time … co-star Ajay Devgn and Luthria for the heist drama set against the backdrop of the Emergency, when gold was siphoned off after the raids on the royal families of Rajasthan.

Hashmi’s character Daliya, is a street-smart Rajasthani vagabond who has a penchant for stealing clothes and accessories from foreign tourists. For his character, the actor spent a considerable amount of time with locals in Rajasthan and street artistes to understand their body language, mannerisms and how they dress. Hashmi, who has been a part of several real-to-reel films, believes that when trying to fictionalise a true story, it is important to “hit the sweet spot between reality and fiction”. “Sometimes, you make the canvas so larger-than-life that you blow things out of the proportion and there is no sync. I think believability is the core essence of staying true to its DNA where you take the initial idea and then drag it into the fictional space. The mass audience is escapist and they like entertainment but a class audience looks for a certain aesthetics and believability,” says Hashmi. According to him, though Luthria (with whom he has teamed up for the third time) makes things larger than life, he also keeps them adequately real.

Moving on

Over the last few years, Hashmi has been signing up for content driven movies like Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010), The Dirty Picture (2011), Shanghai (2012) and Azhar (2016), and is very guarded while talking about the ‘Serial Kisser’ tag that he had been bestowed with for locking lips with his heroines. The actor laments that despite doing different kind of roles, the audience starts associating with a particular image. “That becomes a focal point and people think ‘he works in only such films’ and some producers get wary of casting [me] in a different character. You need someone to be gutsy enough to see the spark in you as an actor,” he says. It gets irritating for him when the media recalls the tag for films and characters that don’t demand it.

The 38-year old actor, who made his debut with Footpath (2003), says that even after being in the industry for almost 14 years, he still doesn’t know what makes a good or a bad film. “You only know it when the audience sees it. I think it goes back to the core principle of having great ideas and implementing the director’s vision by backing it as an actor. Everyone wants to make a good film but sometimes things don’t fall in place.” Case in point: Hamari Adhuri Kahani (2015). Hashmi feels a certain section of the audience objected to the way Vidya Balan’s character was projected. “They found it regressive but such things do happen. They may not be acceptable to people in big cities and metros. They felt offended with the way the woman allowed herself to be treated. I had friends ask me why she didn’t go out with my character Aarav? Why would she stay with a husband like that? You have to be open to the fact that certain dynamics in the film might be objectionable to people,” he says.

Ray of hope

Four years ago, Hashmi’s son Ayaan was diagnosed with Wilm’s tumour, a rare cancer that occurs in the kidney. Having recorded the tumultuous ordeal endured by his family in the 2016 book, Kiss of life: How a superhero and my son defeated cancer , Hashmi feels that it also added a certain depth to his performance. “I don’t know how that comes about but when you deal and reflect on things in your personal life, it helps in any kind of art form. Whenever there’s been something that’s life changing, it finds a creative expression in your work,” he adds.

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