Emraan Hashmi is basking in the success of his cameo in last year’s ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’, which dramatically boosted his stardom. Fans raved about his electric chemistry with Raghav Juyal, igniting a massive social media storm. They embraced it so eagerly that they began dubbing him ‘Emraan Paglu’.
Role impact over length
Talking to India Today, Emraan reflected on the show’s transformative effect and his talent for embracing varied characters. He expressed delight at the massive affection and vital recognition, adding, “Even though it was… and I always say, it’s never the length of the role. It’s always the impact that you leave. Even in a few scenes, it’s about how the character performs. And it was a cameo, which was just two days’ work, and I really didn’t expect this. I mean, when you are shooting it with everyone, it’s all a great scene. We did have a couple of laughs while we were shooting it, because of how the scene was written, but we didn’t know it was going to blow up this way. It’s good that the acknowledgement and that love have come my way”.
Fanbase evolution
When asked about the noticeable change in Emraan’s fanbase following the show, now drawing more men alongside young women. “I think in the first 10 years, men used to hate me a lot. I don’t know the reasons… I guess the stuff that I used to do on screen. Men thought I was in a kind of privileged position. So yes, it’s interesting that this has kind of garnered that,” the actor said with a loud laugh.
Avoiding typecasting trap
During the conversation, Emraan discussed how actors commonly get trapped in a single image. That image brings in box office earnings, so others try to copy it. He views it as a safety net, but prefers choosing diverse roles as an artist. “Even in the same mould of characters, I added my own variety. And I did that in the initial first 10-12 years of my career. But everything reaches a saturation point. Audiences change, their tastes change. And then you have to be… You can’t be a victim of that. You can’t become like this caricature of yourself. Because then it’s a very limited run for you. So if you want to run the marathon here, you have to be able to surprise the audience every now and then,” he added.
OTT’s audience shift
Emraan added that shifts in movies and streaming services have sharpened audience tastes, thanks to global content variety. This evolution excites but ups the challenge for makers. After 25 years and nearly 50 films, picking scripts gets trickier as many feel stale, so turning down routine ones is key unless they deliver true novelty and quality. The actor said, “We live for this… the more the variety, the better it is. As far as roles, it’s very important to keep the kind of stuff that you explore. Back in the day, yes, I used to play a lot of characters. I was heroic, but they had no grey shades. Now, with the shift that came with OTT, it’s great that you are getting to play the same thing over the course of multiple episodes. As actors, you have that greed, you get more scenes to flesh it out and present that character to the audience. In a consolidated film, it’s just two-three hours. But in this, you get more scenes to play it out. I like that… the whole thing of playing out things in a show”.
About ‘Taskaree ’
Directed by Neeraj Pandey, ‘Taskaree’ is streaming on Netflix. It also stars Sharad Kelkar, Zoya Afroz, Nandish Singh Sandhu and Anurag Sinha among others.
