Emraan Hashmi has no qualms in acknowledging that the decision to be part of Chehre was prompted by the fanboy rather than the artiste in him. After all, the Rumy Jafry-directed mystery drama offered him the rare opportunity of working with Amitabh Bachchan. “The man is a megastar with four decades of relentless work behind him. Indian cinema begins and ends with his name. In my formative years, I looked up to him. On set, he would be sitting next to me, unaware of how he has shaped my worldview,” says the actor.

After seeing Bachchan’s passion for cinema, one inevitably wonders if they will have the same drive at 78. Hashmi asserts that his commitment to the craft runs deep. “I have ambition, but I don’t know whether it will be enhanced, or fade away after 35 years. I aspire to have his drive. I remember we were stuck in a blizzard in Slovakia, and he didn’t go back to his car for five hours, instead shooting with us. He reminds you that nothing should be taken for granted.”

With the entertainment industry hitting the pause button in 2020, it gave Hashmi time to reflect on his two-decade career and brought about a shift in his perspective, which will soon reflect in his choice of projects. “Four years ago, I was doing films at a higher frequency. But I don’t want to be offered similar scripts. It takes time for fresh [stories] to come your way,” says the actor, who had a masala potboiler in Mumbai Saga, and will follow it up with Harami and the third instalment of Tiger.

Ask him about the fate of the second season of Bard Of Blood, and he says, “It’s easy to adapt a book, but trickier to extend it beyond the pages. There was a lot of writing, and tearing of pages. At the moment, it’s not happening. But Netflix and Red Chillies are the best people to crack the idea and take it further.”