Time to change the game

I am not competing

with Salman EMRAAN HASHMI

With critical acclaim coming his way for his latest release Ek Thi Daayan, Emraan Hashmi has become an even more bankable name in Bollywood now. After a series of hit films, Emraan has been compared to Salman Khan and his box office strength. “I’ve been hearing a lot about me being compared to Salman. His films earn `100 crores and my films too make good money. But it still doesn’t make me as powerful as him yet,” he says with a smile. The actor insists that he is a star of the masses and that they are his biggest audience. And he is happy with that. “I am not competing with Salman. He is in his own league and I’m doing my bit,” he says. Emraan understands the pressure to live up to his “sure shot hit” reputation. “For an actor, it is a great challenge to sustain his commercial viability. Unlike Salman and other big stars, I don’t have a set image in people’s minds. I consciously work on different genres of film. And my audience is aware of it. I don’t want to be repetitive in my choice of roles and films because that would mean letting my audience down. It will affect me more than the fact that the film won’t make `100 crores.” As of now, the actor seems to be growing from strength to strength with each release. As he waits for his next film Ghanchakkar to hit the theatres, he is sure that it will be yet another game changer in contemporary cinema.