Emraan Hashmi says he was called 'one trick pony' by critics: 'I throw it back at them and say I can do a Shanghai too'

Emraan Hashmi, seen in Netflix's Taskaree, reflects on his career, critics' reaction, and The Ba***ds of Bollywood.

For a long time, Emraan Hashmi was boxed in the serial kisser image. Even as the actor tried diverse roles with films like Jannat, Kalyug, and Shanghai, the image refused to let go. In an interaction with Hindustan Times, the actor reflected on his career and how he managed to break the mould.

Emraan Hashmi's act as a shady videographer in Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai earned him accolades.

Breaking the mould

After years of playing the errant loverboy, Emraan broke the mould with a series of films in the 2010s. The actor says it was not one film that did the trick. “There's not one (role), it's never one. It's always a journey.” He mentions films like Shanghai and Tigers that helped him change his image. “In a way, Jannat broke the mould, as did Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai. So yes, it was a whole bunch of films.”

Emraan recalls that critics often thought he was a ‘one-trick pony’, but he still does not hold their opinions against them. “I wouldn't say critics were unfair. They had their own take on the films, but I knew I could do it. So I just throw it back at them and say, ‘I can do a Shanghai’. So, if you say I'm just a one-trick pony here, given a director like Dibakar (Banerjee), I can do this. So it was just something to prove, not just to myself.”

The Ba***ds of Bollywood effect

Emraan was recently seen as himself, or at least an exaggerated version of himself, in Aryan Khan’s The Ba***ds of Bollywood, where his exchange with Raghav Juyal’s character went viral. Does being part of pop culture in such a huge way help an actor’s career? Emraan responds, “I really don't know how the domino effect will eventually turn out for me. But it’s very difficult, the whole game of relevance. When you talk about going past (the age of) 35-40, it's a new audience that comes in. And when something comes like this, in Ba***ds, that is the voice of the Gen Z. They are people who have probably not seen my films; they've seen songs, they've seen stuff on Instagram. They've probably seen some videos. It's just that they connect, and then want to see more about this man, because this one scene hits the bullseye. So, the entire audience somewhere starts consuming it.”

Emraan admits he does not understand the virality on social media and the ‘fame’ that comes with it. “I don't understand this virality. I don't know how it works. You can't manufacture this. That's the point. Yes, a lot of stuff is being manufactured. You can buy anything on Instagram right now, but this is unpurchasable. This is something that's priceless.

Someone told me back in the day that gaana chalna or gaana chalana (a song working and making a song work) are different. Gaana chalana means you keep bombarding it, and we could do it with songs. But with a chartbuster, you just need to put it out with word of mouth, and it blows up. It has the mileage itself. It carries forward.

About Emraan's new show

Emraan currently stars in Taskaree: The Smuggler's Web. Created by Neeraj Pandey, the show also stars Sharad Kelkar, Amruta Khanvilkar, Zoya Afroz, Nandish Sandhu and Anurag Sinha. The series premiered on January 14 on Netflix.