Emraan Hashmi is currently in Romania wrapping up Raaz Reboot. Later in the year, he will kick off Murder 4 with Vikram Bhatt again as director, this despite his earlier reservations of taking a hit franchise ahead after completing a trilogy. Remind him of this and he admits that at that point he couldn't see how either of these films could be taken forward. “But Vikram came to me with a fantastic concept for Raaz 4 which convinced me that it could be done. Ditto for Murder. A month ago, in Romania, Vikram narrated a one-line concept which just blew me away and I decided that after the successful Murder 2, I wanted to do Part 4 too as it will be a game changer in the genre,“ the actor reasons.

Meanwhile, buzz is that he's playing a vampire or may be the devil himself in the new Raaz. The query is greeted with a guffaw, “I can't reveal anything because going by the title it's a deep dark secret. You'll know once you watch the film.“

However, before these two franchises hit the screen, Emraan will be out with the Azhar biopioc which he admits really challenged him as an actor. “Before this in my 12-year career, I never focussed exclusively on a film for a year-and-a-half. It was a risk and meant getting out of my comfort zone. It meant training in a sport, learning the moves, spending hours with Azhar (Mohd. Azharuddin) to understand how he sees himself, familiarise myself with his life before recreating it on screen. Every film comes with its own challenges but this one demanded 10 times the work of a regular film since Azhar is a public figure. It was a nerve wrecking experience,“ he admits.

With his last few films, including Ghanchakkar, Raja Natwarlal, Hamari Adhuri Kahani and Mr X not faring well at the box-office, some may well believe that Emraan is going through a bad patch professionally but the actor himself calls it his 'reinvention phase'. “Some people see the glass as half empty, I always see it as half full,“ he smiles, pointing out that watching his six-year-old son, Ayaan, win the battle over cancer has changed him as a person. “It was a knockout punch which can bring the castles you have been building in air crumbling down and instills fear in you initially. But once you accept the fact, there is a certain fearlessness and a sense of empathy not just with those who are coping with terminal illness, but human beings in general because you are aware that what happened to you can strike some one else too,“ he insists. He says that he's never been bogged down by social diktats, industry rules or criticism in his choice of roles. “But after going through what I did with Ayaan, I feel I can now deal with anything,“ Emraan smiles.

Azhar has lost a son, Ayazuddin, at 19 to a bike accident. Did this bring them closer? “He knew what my son was going through so maybe in a way it connected us, created a bond of sorts, but it was unspoken. However, after Azhar one thing is for sure, I want to do more such films in future,“ Emraan signs off.