‘They hug you in trial shows and diss you later’
He’s been a part of Bollywood for over 14 years, but actor Emraan Hashmi admits that he is still coming to terms with how the film industry functions.
“I don’t think you ever completely understand Bollywood,” he says, adding, “There’s always a fresh experience [you go through]. There are people who defy common logic here, but it’s a mixed bag like any other profession. You have different kinds of people that make up that workplace — good people and bad people. When they say ‘the big bad world of Bollywood’, I don’t think that’s true. There are a lot of good and well-meaning people here.”
Yet, Emraan describes the support from his family as muchneeded because they don’t ‘sugarcoat’ things like some industry people who are good to your face but criticise you behind your back.
“They (my family) are fairly critical of my stuff; I cherish and like that. When they don’t like something, they are brutally honest. They don’t sugar-coat things and tell me. It’s much needed, since you don’t get that enough.
In film trial shows [people] come and hug you, and say ‘what a great job’, and might diss you out later on. I should therefore have a set of people who are brutally honest,” says Emraan, who was recently seen in Why Cheat India, and will next be seen in a web series.
As for the experience of shooting for his debut web series, which is a thriller, he shares, “It’s fantastic. We have finished around 70-80 days in multiple locations. It is based on a very interesting book. I have always been a fan of web shows and I grabbed it instantly. I love the whole seven-eight episode concept. As an actor, you get that much time to create an arc for the character, which is better than a three-hour film. It’s a lot of work, but fulfilling at the end of the day.”