For a Bollywood actor, it’s nearly unheard of not to have a movie release in over a year; Hindi film stars thrive on being prolific.
Emraan Hashmi, the star of hits such as the thriller series Murder, racy dramedy The Dirty Picture and horror film Raaz, found himself in that rare bracket recently.
His last release was the satirical comedy Ghanchakkar in August 2013, which failed to hit it off with audiences. But he isn’t worried about his lean phase and reasons it out with: “Generally actors get a bit jittery when their films haven’t released for a year. But sometimes it’s counter-productive to have four crappy films come out in a year,” said Hashmi in an interview with tabloid!.
We are at the UTV Disney Studios office in Mumbai and he has a string of interviews lined up for the afternoon to talk up Raja Natwarlal. But there’s no army of minders or bodyguards around him. He’s just had a hearty lunch and claims life couldn’t be better — since a year of slogging away will culminate with Raja Natwarlal.
“But it has been a year of hard work. Our blood, sweat and sheer hard work have gone into this film. The scripting started six months ago before the shoot began. I was hooked onto the story the moment I heard it... And now I am speaking from a place of great strength. I saw the film two days ago and it is fantastic,” said Hashmi. A message alert from his phone distracts him and he excuses himself. “Wow, that was my son — he saw the trailers and he’s telling me his favourite bits from the trailer. That’s always a good sign.” (His four-year-old son Ayaan is a cancer survivor; from the grin on Hashmi’s face it’s clear that winning over his child was bigger than any award that he may receive.)
Directed by Kunal Deshmukh, Raja Natwarlal is a story of a conman who’s out to ruin an unscrupulous billionaire (Kay Kay Menon). But hasn’t Bollywood already exhausted its conman quota? There was Abishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherji’s hit comedy Bunti Aur Babli, Akshay Kumar’s heist thriller Special 26 and Tees Maar Khan, and Bachchan Jr’s Bluff Master.
“I wouldn’t have done this film had it been just about a con artist. I would like to call Raja Natwarlal... a rom-con and not rom-com. It has romance, intrigue, laughs, thrills. It’s not about a few men playing a con on someone... the essence of the film is David vs Goliath and is about a small insignificant man from the streets who takes on a challenge to bring down somebody bigger than him.”
With Raja Natwarlal, Hashmi returns to his familiar space of thrillers and entertainers that hold near-universal mass appeal. His earlier film Ghanchakkar about a loopy Punjabi couple who did shady business was an experiment that didn’t work.
“Not many got that film. I understand why people felt cheated after watching it. I am proud of Ghanchakkar but it was a very radical film,” said Hashmi. He recalls watching the film in a cinema in Mumbai and felt that his fans were reacting badly to their idol being beaten up by the villains.
“They shouted: ‘Emraan bhai ko maar raha hai’ [they are beating up him] and ‘why isn’t he hitting them back’? Till then, I had never understood how the masses watched a film. It was a visceral experience sitting there... the ending is open-ended and that doesn’t sit well with most viewers. They either want a happy ending or a sad one.” In Ghanchakkar, Hashmi played a criminal who spearheads a heist but suffers from a sudden memory loss. His partners are badgering him to find the hidden loot and are accusing him of foul play.
“My fans thought that at least I would screw the bad guys over and take the money. But that didn’t happen and that irritated them.” So does he feel trapped by such expectations? In most Hindi films, the hero is invincible. Even if he gets beaten into a pulp in the first minutes, he’s expected to rise like the proverbial phoenix to fix things. In the Good Vs Evil drama, it’s always the virtuous hero that walks away unscathed. The formula is rarely tampered with.
“When you are in this business, you get labelled for certain things and the audience expects you to do those things. It becomes your stamp, but you can only deviate slightly from that. For instance, being a serial kisser is my brand. There’s always an original. For instance, when you think of ordering a burger, you first think of McDonalds and not any other pizza place,” said Hashmi, who’s infamous for indulging in deep lip-locks with the heroines in his films. Raja Natwarlal has got a bit of that and a lot more, claims the actor.
The romance angle is brought alive by Pakistani actress Humaima Malick and legendary actor Paresh Rawal, who plays a retired conman and Hashmi’s reluctant mentor.
“Raja Natwarlal is an eventful film. There’s something to laugh about, cry about and the climax is a clap-trap where you will get to do seeti [whistle],” said Hashmi, who has acted in a string of thrillers since his debut in 2003 drama Footpath. After Raja Natwarlal, the nephew of director-producer Mahesh Bhatt will be seen in an Anurag Kashyap and Bosnian producer-director Danis Tanovic’s co-production Tigers, and Karan Johar’s production Ungli.
“I am uncomfortable sometimes with the things that stardom has to offer. But when I think about the roles that are left to do, I feel good to be here.” He may be uncomfortable with being idolised, but his co-star Malick swears that he handles the adulation well. He made a Bollywood outsider like her feel right at home.
“For Raja Natwarlal, we shot a song [on the] Mumbai roads. Thousands came to watch but he never lost his cool. I have never seen him throw tantrums or give anybody any attitude. When he comes onto the sets, he doesn’t bring along that star baggage. And he’s punctual and prompt too.”
