Emraan Hashmi recently revealed that he has often been stopped at immigration checks at airports and in the early 2000s was whisked away on the side quite a bit, adding that he probably “fits the bill of somebody.”
While attending the trailer launch of his upcoming series Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web in Mumbai on Wednesday, Emraan was asked if he had ever been stopped or questioned by customs officials at the airport. The series revolves around a team of custom officers and how they crack down on a smuggling syndicate.
Recalling his experience, Emraan said, “No, I think they have been very sweet to me. Whenever I have travelled back, they have been very sweet. But there is this sense of overpowering fear, it’s not logical. It’s like when you learn how to drive, but when you see an RTO officer on the road, you suddenly get anxious. So that’s what happens. When I’m travelling alone, even though I’ve packed only clothes, you still feel like you’re carrying 100 kilos of contraband in your bag while walking through the green channel.”
He added, “But it’s not at all logical. I have been called out at immigration checks very early on, probably because of earrings or stuff, when I used to travel alone. But now, when they see me with my sweet family, they don’t suspect me. In the early 2000s, I used to get whisked away to the side quite a bit. That is called profiling. I fit the bill of somebody, but I don’t know who that person was.”
In Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web, written and produced by Neeraj Pandey, Emraan plays a no-nonsense Customs officer Arjun Meena. The actor was last seen in the Suparn Varma directorial Haq, based on the Shah Bano case, and also starring Yami Gautam.
