Most actors are selfish: Emraan Hashmi

Emraan Hashmi has teamed up with his Once Upon A Time In Mumbai director Milan Luthria and co-actor Ajay Devgn for Baadshaho. The film, which also stars Ileana D’Cruz and Esha Gupta, is set during the emergency era. Emraan talks about the film, being part of multi-starrers, and the box office, among other things.

What was the reason for picking up this project?
My only reason for accepting this film was the concept. Working with Ajay and Milan was like a bonus. Milan narrated this story to me seven years back, but he got busy with other projects. It's about a truck of gold being transported out of Maharani’s palace which disappeared inspite of being well-guarded during the emergency era. Till date no one knows where it went. This is a fictional story of what might have happened to it.

Was it difficult to transport yourselves to the emergency era?
I think that is the hard work the rest of the team does. I would not want to take any credit for it. Art direction, cinematography, costumes are the tough jobs involving a lot of research. I think ours is an easy job. For us (the actors), it was tough to catch the dialect.

Are you comfortable doing multi-starrers?
I have to be, but it takes time to get used to it. Most actors are selfish. So you have to be okay with sharing the attention in a multi-starrer.

Your last few films have not done well at box office, does it bother you?
You can’t do much about it. You will do feel disheartened, but it is important to be detached from that failure, and for that matter, even from success. Sometimes success can also drive you mad. 
 
What is your take on current phase of Bollywood where a lot of big films have not done well?
I think the audience has become less forgiving. They will not accept anything that is mediocre. They have so many choices at the moment, with the web and television. Going to the movies has become quite expensive, so you better be worth their money. The existence of social media has also changed the game. If your film would have crashed on Monday, now it crashes on Saturday itself.
 
Do you also feel box office clashes are one of the reasons behind films not doing well?
We don’t have a choice because there are only few Fridays, and you have so many films releasing. Big dates are taken by big stars. If your film is smaller, you have to hope it'll be good enough to pick up once word of mouth spreads. For example, Lipstick Under My Burkha started slow but it caught on, similarly Hindi Medium too started with low collection but it went on to become a hit. There is always a place for good films.
 
What is the update on your production plans?
There are a couple of films that we are about to announce. I won’t direct them; I will only produce and act in them. We are also working on a documentary. We have the script ready, but people expect every film of mine to have four songs. So it is a bit difficult to get funding for that.
 
Can you speak about your next film Captain Nawab?
It is too early to talk about it, but the film goes on floors next month. It is an interesting story which starts from real life and moves into fiction like Baadshaho.