Prashant Singh (HINDUSTAN TIMES; February 6, 2020)

During his college days, when a young Emraan Hashmi watched Sanjay Gupta’s Kaante (2002), he was instantly hooked, thanks to the filmmaker’s “narrative style and the way he positions his actors”. “It’s amazing how Sanjay delves into the underworld space and always does something marvellous with it,” says the actor.

Naturally then, when Emraan got a call from Sanjay about being part of his next project, Mumbai Saga, the actor was expecting a gangster’s role “in the story of gangsters”. But that was not to be. “I was hoping that I will take on the mantle of Shoaib (Khan; Emraan’s gangster character from Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai; 2010). In fact, after that film, I rejected a lot of offers which were in the same zone. Maybe, I was waiting for Sanjay’s film (laughs). But when Sanjay said he is offering me the role of a cop, I was a little taken aback,” he says.

After Once Upon..., Emraan says he wanted to “try and experiment with different roles (and not just gangsters/criminals)”. “I feel it’s also very essential for an actor. Success or no success, it is imperative for an actor to venture out. Then, of course, there is your home territory. Here, I was being offered a cop’s character by Sanjay and till that point, I hadn’t worn the uniform in any of my films,” says the actor.

Now though, Emraan’s dilemma was if the cop’s part is the “righteous kind”, which “tends to be slightly unidimensional and carries a been-there-done-that feel”. He says: “I was hoping it’s not that and to my surprise, the way the part has been penned and the kind of character I play, he is almost like a gangster. An encounter specialist, he can put a bullet into someone if it accomplishes his motive. He is a bada** character in a dog-eats-dog kind of world wherein this guy is the wolf.”

Emraan, in fact, admits that in reel life, he has “almost always been the guy who is on the opposite side of law”. “No one would imagine that I am playing a cop but for this policeman, he is, as I said, like a gangster. Be it by fair or unfair means, he will bring down the guy he is going for. So, it’s kind of home turf but it’s a very entertaining pitch for a character in a pure Sanjay Gupta style, who has created his own brand of cinema. And as an actor, I am always up for doing something different,” he concludes.