Emraan Hashmi: The Man In Front Of The Camera And The One Behind It

Emraan Hashmi has come a long way since his debut in the year 2003. Murder, which emerged as a financial success, was the movie that got him noticed and that’s when he got the title “serial kisser”. Right from his professional choices (doing movies that have heroines in the limelight) to his personal life (not attending film parties and having a friend circle mostly outside the film industry) one can see a refreshingly different attitude. His recent autobiographical account The Kiss of Life: How a superhero and my son defeated cancer is the story of how his son Ayaan fought and defeated cancer. The book has an inspirational tale that has managed to impact the lives of many parents and children who have been fighting the disease. In this exclusive interview with Delhiites magazine Emraan Hashmi talks about the testing phase that he had to go through as a father, his belief system and his latest movie Cheat India.

- Anmil Vijay

We read about your son. How has that time at home helped you in terms of bonding with your family?

Well actually the most testing time about that phase was that I couldn’t take a break. People think that I took a break in that phase. But when my son was shifted to a hospital in Canada and it was all in the course of fifteen days, I came back and did a hundred day schedule in Mumbai and Cape Town. So not many people know about that. But I think work is also a great healer. The good thing about movies is when the camera switches on you can forget about your problems. But it wasn’t about forgetting problems. I still had the responsibility of a father and my family was there taking care of him. Then I went and got him back from Canada. But yes that was a testing phase because I couldn’t be with him. Work commitments and timelines had to be abided by. But there were enough people in my family and support system to take care of him.

Please could you tell us a little bit about your adventures in the Bhatt camp?

Of course that’s the company I had started off with and I started as an assistant director with my first film. I did my first film with them Footpath in 2003. We’ve had a successful run. We’ve had a huge success rate with films. Given some really great films and some really good music in the films. There was a time when we had to move on and it was very important for me to work not that I wasn’t working with other people before - so I wanted to take the next step in my career and that is why the last film with them happened two years back. We haven’t stumbled upon a script that we can make into a film at the moment but never say never.

Have you ever struggled with the “serial kisser” tag?