‘Recalibrate and rethink’: Emraan Hashmi on the changing face of Bollywood cinema
Emraan Hashmi is gearing up for the release of his new flick Ground Zero. Hashmi, who entered the acting scene since 2003, has been credited as one of the most versatile actors in Bollywood, his career spanning across films of varying genres such as Gangster, The Dirty Picture, Shanghai, and Tigers.
Now, in a recent interaction with PTI, the actor shared his perspective on the contemporary age of cinema, talking about the new wave of young talent coming into Bollywood. “It's very important to kind of learn from them,” he said, “I think that's what relevance is all about.”
"When you tune into their minds and you do fresh and reinvent yourself, and do your fresh take on characters and genres and films, and not live in the past,” the 46-year-old continued.
He also mentioned that the cinema industry is at a point of change, where a little extra thought is demanded during the creative process, while also making films suitable for the pan-India audience. “There's no mystery about it as an industry that is going through a certain phase where we need to recalibrate, rethink the kind of films that we're making. Make films that are a little more rooted and bring in that whole pan-India feeling ethos for the audiences to come in.”
Due to this ongoing “recalibration”, Hashmi has been especially meticulous in choosing his scripts, valuing the storyline over potential box office gains. “It is disastrous to have a film that doesn't connect at all on any level. You have successful films that fail at the box office. But at least the intent should be a film that reaches far and wide. So, it's important to kind of get that right. So, that's what I have in mind when I'm hearing the script or when I zero down on a film.”
Ground Zero, hitting the big screens on April 25, features Hashmi essay the role of BSF officer Narendra Nath Dhar Dubey, who led the operation to find the orchestrator behind the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, Ghazi Baba.
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