Now that kissing doesn’t have shock value, I can move on to other things: Emraan Hashmi

After ending 2018 with an acclaimed performance as a whistle-blower in Oscar-winning director, Danis Tanovic’s Tigers, it’s new beginnings for Emraan Hashmi in the new year. He turns producer, not just that, he further attempts at shedding his ‘lover boy-serial kisser’ image with his very first production, Why Cheat India, a social drama in which he plays a conman who runs an entrance examination racket in Lucknow. “If I have had a certain image for over 12 years then it might take 10 years to fade that out. It is tough – you’re known for a few things that have worked in your favour, that image has got so strongly etched in an audience’s mind and you have to try that much harder. So this is the fade out of the old Emraan which will take some time,” says Hashmi in an exclusive chat with Firstpost from his plush apartment in Mumbai’s western suburbs. [caption id=“attachment_5561831” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Emraan Hashmi in Cheat India[/caption] And he says the change in image will take some time because the actor was ‘conned’ into kissing even in Tigers and Why Cheat India. “That’s the last shot in Why Cheat India. Even Danis Tanovic put it in Tigers which is weird,” he laughs, adding, “Kissing is not provocative anymore and it’s great that kissing doesn’t have a shock value and I can move on to other things. When I did it, it was the right time to do the wrong things on screen. Today if you access the internet, there are all kinds of erotica available.” Why Cheat India happened when the film’s director, Soumik Sen, narrated several stories about the education ‘mafia’ which the actor didn’t know about. “He told me about the cheating mafia that functions in all the states and which gets admission to many undeserving students with no merits. It is pretty big, umpteen paper leaks, cheating in exams, student impersonation, proxy examiners… I didn’t know how it functioned and when Soumik told me, it spiked up my interest level and I wanted to make a film. I will be very proud to present this film. It is more than just a film. There is a whole revelation, expose that people don’t know about. I have also been part of this education system. My son started going to school three years back, so conversations started about which school, how things haven’t changed over the past, probably 50 years, the rote mugging system, disinterested and unqualified teachers, the lack of university seats, capitation fee racket…This film is pretty much about everything that the education system is lacking,” said Emraan. Emraan plays a shrewd scamster who fraudulently gets students into engineering and management colleges. He has a whole team of people who write exams on behalf of other candidates, and in the end, students go to their dream college, people who write exams get their money while Hashmi gets his moolah. “My character Rakesh is again a departure from the stuff I have been doing. He might have grey shades, he may be an anti-hero but in a different space. There is no justification towards my negative character and that is the beauty of the film. He is ambitious, he has greed and he is a pretty pragmatic person. Things that he is doing is probably morally questionable but so is the education system. That is what my character says, that at least people are not dying because of him. At least I am getting them the degrees, whereas the education system is leading to suicide of kids. Who is at fault here? He has got his own justification to things. And from the face value he looks like the nicest guy but with the most devious mind,” said Emraan while explaining his character. [caption id=“attachment_5715281” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Emraan Hashmi in another still from Cheat India. YouTube[/caption] “The texture and the tone of the film is real, yet entertaining. We did an umpteen number of look tests for the character and we finally boiled down to a look that is very unassuming . He doesn’t look like the crook that he is. There is a duality to the kind of guy he is. The dialogues are very punchy but there is no dialogue-baazi in the film; these are colloquial, spoken dialogues. It is very real and understated like placing the camera in a home in UP or in a college there and you can see things play out. At the same time, it is very effective,” he further says. Emraan says he is excited about shedding the “Star Emraan Hashmi” image. He is also confident about doing so because whenever he took a risk and tried something new, it has paid off. “Films like Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, Shanghai, Awarapan and Jannat challenged me and steered my career into a fresh direction. I am hoping Why Cheat India does that too,” he says adding, “Small films with big ideas and big budget films with small ideas have not worked the previous year. In a lot of films earlier, I was playing a star and when you play a star, you have to do things according to what audience wants you to do. You are bound by the box, you play by the rules and things become little repetitive. Right now, the audience wants to see stars playing characters. It is a great time because that is something what I was inclined at doing.” And one director he is really keen on working with is Sriram Raghavan. “I still have to watch Andhadhun but I would love to work with him,” says Emraan. Shifting gear to becoming a producer may be an added responsibility but Emraan is happy being involved in the entire process of filmmaking, from scripting to marketing. “Also, I won’t mind launching new faces if there is a script that doesn’t require me in it. It is not necessary for me to do every film. But right now, the three films that I am producing has me in it. I will now go for new-age directors who are raring to go with novel and fresh ideas and who have a different perspective on cinema,” said the actor-producer. Emraan is also stepping into the digital platform with the Netflix show, Bard of Blood, an adaptation of Bilal Siddiqi’s novel which will release in August/September. “I love OTT platform; I love web shows. It is like shooting three films.You get more hours to form that arc for a character, while you might get only two hours in a film. You get a chance to sink your teeth into different kinds of roles. It is a great platform for any actor who is greedy. It’s great time for actors, everyone has got work now,” he says. And is there anything that he could have been done better when he looks back? “There is always room for more in someone’s life but I never look at things in retrospect. I always look at where I am now and what I can do to better myself . I don’t want to change anything. If I had to go back, I still won’t go to award ceremonies. I won’t change a thing,” he signs off.