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‘LOT OF INFLATED EGOS HERE, CAN’T TICK THEM OFF’
Emraan Hashmi says one needs to be diplomatic in Bollywood, which is an art he has learnt over the years
In an industry where people are known to take a diplomatic stand and be careful of what they speak, actor Emraan Hashmi comes as a breath of fresh air. He calls a spade a spade. However, he says that he has toned it down.
Asked if because of this nature, he has ever encountered a block and he denies. “No, also it’s not that I am not diplomatic. It’s an art you learn along the way. You have to be… you can never be brutally honest here. There are a lot of inflated egos here, so just ticking off someone… why unnecessarily? It’s good to be diplomatic but at the same time, on the things, you can be brutally honest… it’s important to be that way.”
His latest film, Why Cheat India, also had the same philosophy — to be honest about the cheating mafia in India. However, it ran into a controversy when the director Soumik Sen was accused of sexual misconduct by women in October last year. Everyone expected that the makers will distance themselves from Sen, considering how several accused names were dropped from other projects. However, Sen wasn’t. On this, Emraan says, “With Soumik, there were a few allegations, and I was tagged on Twitter… the thing is, we really don’t know. Though I am all for the #MeToo movement, but you can’t have a trial by social media... I am not defending him, but just jumping the gun
and taking drastic steps like throwing someone out of the film...it doesn’t stop there.”
The actor emphasises on how there needs to be a “due process” in the country. “The lines are pretty blurred right now. A lot of allegations are legit, some [are not],” he says and shares that without valid proof, a person should “not be stripped off” their job. “It needs a little bit more thought, before just banning, that’s what we have done,” Emraan explains.
Recently, the actor also made headlines due to a comment he had made on a chat show a couple of years ago. He was asked to name a celebrity who were the first to come to his mind upon hearing that particular word. And for, ‘plastic’, he had said ‘Aishwarya’ (Rai Bachchan, actor). Recently, when Aishwarya was asked the worst comment she has heard about herself, she said: ‘being called fake and plastic’. Everyone naturally attributed this to Emraan. However, he clarifies, yet again, “I don’t think (she referred to my) comment. How do you know she said my name? What if someone else called her the same? But I have admired her as an actor. She is the only actress whose vanity van I stood outside for an hour to get a glimpse of. It was all to win the hamper (on the show). You have to be brutally controversial to win that, and I had Mr Controversial on the other side of the couch — Mahesh Bhatt! If I would have given a lame answer, I wouldn’t have won. I didn’t mean it.”