Seema Sinha (BOMBAY TIMES; April 15, 2014)

An Amitabh Bachchan fan, Emraan Hashmi’s favourite Big B film is Mr Natwarlal. Naturally, he is excited because he plays a conman in his next film called Raja Natwarlal, which has many twists, turns and several cons that eventually lead to a big one.

His character is based on a real-life conman, who pulled off notorious heists and duped people of crores of rupees, by disguising himself.

Originally titled Shaatir, the film’s title was changed at the actor’s insistence. Says Emraan, who plays street-smart con, Raja, “I’ve been after the producers to change the title as it is extremely catchy and etches out my character. It fits in well with the film’s space and will help us in promotions.”

Adds director Kunal Deshmukh, “I always wanted to present Emraan in a never-seen-before avatar. He plays the modern-day Natwarlal. The title is apt.” Amrita Pandey, VP and Head, Theatrical, Television and Digital Distribution — Studio, Disney India, says, “Emraan, Kunal and our team were gung-ho about this title from the moment we hit upon it, as it sums up his character so perfectly.”

Emraan is paired with Humaima Malick, who debuts in Bollywood with this film.

Raja Natwarlal, produced by UTV Motion Pictures, releases August 29.

MUMBAI MIRROR (March 24, 2014)

He plays a flamboyant conman in Shaatir and Emraan Hashmi sure has a wardrobe to match. The actor sported an eye-catching combination of a leopard print shirt, torn jeans and orange shoes while shooting a dance sequence near Hutatma Chowk on Sunday evening. The actor matched steps with some equally brightly-clad extras, as hundreds looked on. The crowd cheered on as Emraan jived his way through the song. The actor sat outside in public view instead of retiring to his vanity van in-between takes and at one point he was spotted speaking animatedly on the phone. A gaggle of bouncers kept the fans and the photographers at bay, threatening to take away the click-happy crowd’s phones and cameras if they crossed the line

Asira Tarannum (MID-DAY; February 25, 2014)

With his four-year-old son diagnosed with a kidney tumour and now recuperating in Canada, it is known that actor Emraan Hashmi is currently going through a personal turmoil. But it seems that the actor is a thorough professional. Hashmi — who is back from Canada and has resumed shooting for Vikram Bhatt’s film, Mr X — was apparently asked by the production house, UTV if he wanted to postpone shooting for Shaatir by a few days, allowing him time to go visit his son.

But the actor decided to not take the offer; he has asked them to go ahead and slot his shoot for the film.
A source says that the actor has ensured that the makers of his upcoming film Mr. X do not incur any losses either on account of his personal problems.

It may be recalled that Hashmi was to fly to South Africa on January 18 for the shoot of Mr. X, but after his son was diagnosed with cancer, the actor cancelled the trip. He had then informed the makers of his film and requested them to shift the shoot location to Mumbai.

Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; February 18, 2014)

For any parent, to hear the word cancer associated with your child, can be traumatising. All kinds of things play out in your head. And that is what happened to Emraan, too, when he first came to know about his son Ayaan being detected of a malignant tumour. Ayaan was successfully operated for his tumour in Mumbai, post which Emraan took him for chemotherapy to Toronto. After spending a month with his son there, the professional Emraan returned to shoot the crime thriller Mr X at Filmalaya Studios on Sunday, where he spoke exclusively to Bombay Times. Excerpts:
 
How is Ayaan now? 
He is doing good and has recuperated fast. He was always doing well, even when he was diagnosed with the condition he had, in Mumbai. He was as playful as he always was and still is. He was running around in the hospital after the second day of operation here.
 
What treatment is he undergoing? 
He had a malignant tumour called the WILMS tumour which was detected in its second stage. There is a medical protocol for this as he needs to be there for 15 weeks for taking chemotherapy. When you remove a tumour, the bad cells may still be there somewhere in the body, so chemo is done to kill them. It’s not a common cancer amongst children. Leukemia is more common within paediatric cancer. When you hear the word cancer as a parent, a lot of things play out in your mind. The doctors have told us that if we would have had to pick a certain kind of cancer, it would be WILMS as the prognosis for this cancer is 90-95% making the survival rate pretty high. Children are very resilient. The word cancer for parents is the scariest thing in the world, but what they need to understand is that 95% of cancer is curable, which is what we don’t get to hear as the narrative of the word cancer is so overwhelmingly full of terror. But this sane voice is not built on hope, but on scientific evidence of past prognosis.
 
Why did you decide on Toronto?
Due to the environment there so that he can recuperate faster. There is family there. In Mumbai, he would be restricted to the places he can go, plus the environment is better there. If I had to keep him here, he would need to be contained in the house but out there, he can go everywhere, be it to shopping malls or cinema theatres.
 
It must be tough for you as a parent? 
The tumour was half a kilo and looked like a pomegranate. We couldn’t tell Ayan we are going into an operation. We told him we are checking into a hotel. There had to be a script in the whole thing. We told him the IV was there to make him Iron Man. The Batman actually saved the day. In our house, Santa Claus is too tame. From the age of two, whenever we wanted him to do something like have his milk, we could call Batman from his phone which would pop up Batman on the screen, but would actually connect with me. Whether I was in the other room or outside, I would then change my voice and speak to him as Batman. So out there also, I used to constantly talk to him in the hospital room as Batman and that helped him get through. Thankfully, we detected it as this could have gone undetected. We had no choice but to be strong as parents. We couldn’t have broken down even for a second.
 
When do you go back to Toronto?
I am shooting Mr X, then I need to complete Shaatir after which I will promote Ungli if it is releasing in May, post which I will go back to Ayaan in Toronto end of May.