With Emraan Hashmi-starrer Gunmaaster G9 locking its release date for late November, director Aditya Datt is set to reunite with the actor nearly two decades after their collaboration on Aashiq Banaya Aapne. While the two have been trying to collaborate again for several years, Datt reveals that two separate projects they had planned together failed to materialize, despite both getting close to going on floors. “We’ve been trying to put movies on the floor from a decade now. Every time our movie was supposed to go on floors, there was an issue,” Datt says.

The director recalls that their first attempt at reuniting came in 2009, with a script to be produced by a leading studio. “We were supposed to do a film together back in 2009 once, which was written by Mr Anees Bazmee for us. The studio pulled the plug a couple of months before the shoot. We were actually into prep for that film,” he recalls.

The duo tried again around 2014-16, this time with a film being produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s production house. But that project too eventually fell through. “We finished the scripting, Mr Bhansali was producing the film and I was supposed to do it and take it on floors. There was a mishap and again that script didn’t happen. Sadly, every time we were so close to shooting, we were literally supposed to go on floors and something would just not work out.”

Gunmaaster G9 finally gave the collaborators the opportunity they had been waiting for. “I would get busy with another film and he would get busy with something. Things were just not falling into place. And then, like they say, everything has a time, and this just happened.”

Despite the success and nostalgia associated with Aashiq Banaya Aapne, Datt says making a sequel was never the intention. He believes both he and Hashmi have evolved as storytellers and performers since their earlier collaboration.

“Back then we were kids. It was a different energy. It would have been very simple to put another Aashiq Banaya Aapne and flow, but I think as cinema, we just grew into liking new things. All the stories that we want to tell and him as an actor, he’s grown so much. I’m hoping that I’m growing as a director too.”

With Gunmaaster G9, Datt was particularly keen to take Hashmi into an action space he felt the actor had not explored in this manner before.

“I just wanted to do something new with him, something which he’s also not done. I don’t think Emraan’s done a nice, great action film ever. I wanted to do something which stands out and breaks whatever he’s done and I have done also in the past. I don’t want to do obvious, expected things.”

The title Gunmaaster G9 may immediately remind audiences of Mithun Chakraborty’s iconic Gunmaster G9 character, but Datt says the connection is coincidental rather than intentional.

“I know people are thinking, is he an agent or is it from the Mithunda thing? Actually, it’s not. It’s got nothing to do with Mithun da’s character, but a hat tip perhaps. The film is about the underworld and gangsters. My main character is great with guns and he’s a master of it, and G9 is the Glock 9 that he loves carrying with him. That’s why Gunmaaster G9.”

For Datt, the film is ultimately an attempt to bring back the emotional ingredients of mainstream Hindi cinema while presenting them through a contemporary lens.

“The basic emotion is always the same. Even when I’m trying to narrate something in today’s day and age, I wanted to keep that basic core emotion of an Indian audience alive the music, the romance, the action and at the same time have a language of a 2026 narrator.”

Lights, camera, commotion. What began as a routine film shoot in Haridwar turned into a public uproar when locals mistook a movie set for a real bar. On Wednesday (June 10), a crowd disrupted the shoot of a scene for Emraan Hashmi-starrer Gunmaaster G9 after spotting a sign board that read ‘Bar and Café’ in the holy city.

Aparshakti Khurana was filming at Bhatia Bhawan in Shravan Nath Nagar when locals gathered at the location and objected to the apparent opening of a bar. The protest gained momentum after videos from the set circulated online, as meat, eggs, and alcohol are prohibited in Haridwar.

“We go to shoot scenes with necessary props, at places without any intention of hurting anybody’s feelings. We always respect the system and follow all the rules. After speaking to the local people, we sorted it out,” said producer Deepak Mukut, who was taken aback by the accusations. He shared that, as a Hindu, he would never consider opening a bar in Haridwar.

“We are also Hindus and we respect the sentiments of everybody. Then we explained to them that it’s a film shoot,” he added. To calm tensions, the makers removed the word ‘Bar’ from the signboard and kept it only as ‘Café’.

Although the production had secured the necessary permissions, locals were reportedly unaware that a film shoot was underway. After wrapping up in Haridwar, the team heads to Mussoorie, Rishikesh, and Delhi.

“A little bit of patchwork is left in Mumbai. The film will be completed in the first week of July with only a couple of songs remaining. [Paired opposite Hashmi], Genelia [Deshmukh] will join after the 20th of June,” explained the producer of the spy thriller.

On July 9, as soon as Gunmaaster G9 was announced, social media went into overdrive, cheering the reunion of Emraan Hashmi and Himesh Reshammiya, who composed many of the actor’s chartbusters in the early 2000s. But the Aditya Datt-directed action thriller has hit a roadblock right at the start. While the Hashmi and Genelia Deshmukh-starrer was to roll in a village near Rishikesh in Uttarakhand by mid-July, the makers have called off the schedule in light of the heavy rains that battered North India last week.  

The call was taken to ensure the safety of the cast and crew, says Datt. “The situation in North India, especially Uttarakhand and even Delhi, has been quite serious. While our team was eager to push forward, for me, the safety of my crew comes first. We’re dealing with real [locations], not sets, and the risk factor becomes too high in such weather.”

The team has reworked the shoot dates. Now, Gunmaaster G9 will roll only in September. “We’d rather wait and shoot with full intensity once the skies clear,” states Datt.

The decision may have resulted in a six-week delay for the project, but producer Deepak Mukut is unfazed. He says, “We’ve all seen how the rains have wreaked havoc, [resulting in] road closures, flooding, and landslides. It’s not the right time to shoot. We made this decision unanimously.”