Kavita Awaasthi (HINDUSTAN TIMES; November 28, 2019)

“I am scared, nervous and excited,” says Emraan Hashmi — the actor who is all geared up for his next release, the spine-chilling thriller The Body.

“When you put in your creative efforts in a film, you hope that the audience appreciates it and come in huge numbers to see the work,” says Emraan. In the past two years, though the actor has been shooting for his web show, Bard Of Blood (BOB) and two other movies, he has been away from the public eye. However, the 40-year-old actor didn’t feel that way. He says, “When I meet the media, I do feel that thoda lamba break ho gaya hai. I was shooting non-stop for The Body co-starring Rishi ji (Kapoor), then we took a break for his health. Then, I was shooting for BOB, which took nine months. My past few releases, Azhar (2016), Baadshaho (2017), and this year’s Why Cheat India, didn’t work that well. Now, I’m working on Chehre, Ezra, Vayusena and Mumbai Saga, so you will see more of me.”

The actor says that there’s a conscious effort on his part to do more work, but doesn’t want to compromise on the quality of the roles. “It just happens that I got some good roles and couldn’t say no,” he adds.

Once tagged as the ‘serial kisser’, Emraan has seen tremendous success in his career and has a huge fan following. Ask him how has the nature of fame changed over the years and he says, “Today, stardom isn’t confined to films, music or sports. We have YouTube, social media celebrities. Earlier, there was an enigma about actors as information about stars was circulated via film magazines or a couple of TV shows only. Today, people are comfortable about putting their life out on social media. While we are used to social media now, this too will change. Maybe with AI, we will interact with stars through virtual reality. There will be a paradigm shift in the way we consume tech. It might be drastic. In fact, I find social media scary. However, I’m an adapter and try to keep up with technology.”

Emraan,who began his career with massy films such as Raaz (2002), Murder (2004), Zeher (2005), says, “I benefitted greatly from those roles, but then there was a time to move on. It was a risk to try something new because the industry doesn’t want you to change. But as a creative person, you have to take up challenges.”

Emraan is glad that he did BOB which was “a step in that direction”. He says, “Most of the industry doesn’t want to venture into OTT, but I’m one of few actors who have tried their hand at it. When I took on BOB, I felt it would be give me an international audience. Also this subject wouldn’t have been made for cinema.”