Emraan Hashmi calls for reinvention in Bollywood: 'Can't live in the past'

One of Bollywood's most adaptable performers, Emraan Hashmi, thinks that the key to keeping up with the changing film industry is to be receptive to new ideas and techniques from younger actors. Over the course of his 20-plus-year career, the actor has been in a number of critically acclaimed and commercially successful films and television series, including Gangster, The Dirty Picture, Shanghai, Raaz, Murder, and Jannat.

Emraan Hashmi on relevance

Hashmi recently spoke with PTI and stressed the significance of innovation. As one enters a new generation of actors and filmmakers, the actor believes it becomes increasingly crucial to maintain their relevance. Relevance, in his opinion, is all about learning from mistakes; thus, it's crucial to do just that.

To him, staying relevant means letting go of the past and welcoming new ideas. When one adopts a new perspective, they can explore innovative approaches such as reimagining classic characters, genres, and films with a contemporary perspective, instead of relying on outdated techniques. According to him, that's when the concept of relevancy becomes crucial.

Such decisions, according to the actor, who debuted in the web series Bard of Blood, are a natural component of his growth as a performer. What a shift it was when he did the Netflix series in 2017 and 2018. Regressing and saying things like "I'm going to keep doing what I do" would be detrimental to being relevant.

Call for industry-wide recalibration

The necessity for recalibration was also emphasised by Hashmi, who voiced his worries about the film industry's complacency. As an industry, they are clearly entering a period of transition where they must reevaluate and reconsider the films they produce. Create films with a deeper sense of place and introduce the viewers to the pan-Indian spirit.

There are too many concept films and Western sensibilities on OTT for there to be any sort of elite texture to the film. To get the desired results, it is imperative that they drastically alter the type of films they are producing. Nonetheless, it's concerning, and the actor believes they will eventually find a balance; they haven't finished yet.

He continued by saying that, in his opinion, the industry is "still way off" from satisfying audience expectations, and that denial is a contributing factor. To this day, Hashmi frequently receives enquiries from fans and fellow actors about why he isn't involved in as many films as he was before 2019. If one wants to know what's out there, they have to listen to narrative narrations.

"It's just that people haven't recalibrated to what was the single-screen era, out of a lack of a better term for it; then when the multiplexes came in, people started fuelling a certain Western sensibility," according to him.

Hindering progress in Bollywood

Given the current status of Hindi cinema, Hashmi freely confessed that he is now more picky. To start with, it's terrible when a movie fails to resonate with its audience on any level. Some of their films do well critically but poorly at the box office. At least the goal is to make a film with broad appeal. Therefore, it is critical to achieve a satisfactory result. Thus, that is his mental image whenever he hears a screenplay or when he settles on a movie.

Tiger 3 featured Emraan as a formidable antagonist, but the actor has since said that he is stepping away from that type of representation. His affection for the character led him to do the film. The villain had a backstory; thus, it was different from the usual type. After that, he will be more careful not to grab too many of those.

Upcoming release: Ground Zero

An action-thriller helmed by Tejas Deoskar (who directed Chhatriwali and Bucket List) and produced by Excel Entertainment's Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, Ground Zero is the actor's next project. He is currently preparing for its release. The film is set to premiere in theatres on April 25 and features Sai Tamhankar and Zoya Hussain, among others.