I am not a perfectionist: Emraan Hashmi

Mumbai: 'Papa, papa,' little boy Ayaan calls out shrilly. 'Bas do minute beta,' replies doting dad Emraan Hashmi. Fortunately, he was able to converse with us for more than just two minutes. Besides, the 33-year-old actor has no starry airs and no ready lines.

His career itself has never been cliched. Launched by the Bhatt brothers nearly a decade ago, Emraan has been labelled everything from a serial kisser to a poor man's hero. Today he is known as a bankable star.

However, in his own words, Emraan finds stardom a heavy baggage to lug. He talks about why he’s picking up serious roles, his problem with perfection and his penchant for puckering up:

Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin and Prosenjit Chatterjee starrer 'Shanghai' is being released on June 8, 2012.
The film is an adaptation of Greek author Vassilis Vassilikos' famous novel 'Z'.
National Award winning Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee plays a dynamic politician in Dibakar Banerjee's 'Shanghai'.
Prosenji's character in the film was written keeping filmmaker Shekhar Kapur in mind. Dibakar asked his team to dig up pictures of how Kapur looked 15 to 20 years back.
Kalki Koechlin plays a student activist in the film named Shalini.
After 'Dev D' and 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' it is Kalki Koechlin and Abhay Deol's third film together.
Kalki says that she had no time to prepare for the film. She read the script of 'Shanghai' while preparing for her wedding.
As many reports claim, Emraan Hashmi and Abhay Deol tried hard to outshine each other throughout the film.
Emraan Hashmi plays a porn filmmaker in the film and grown a paunch to suit his character.
Lately, a petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court for an interim stay on the release of forthcoming Bollywood film 'Shanghai' until its controversial song 'Bharat Mata ki jai' is removed from the film. Tejinder Bagga of Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, has filed the petition.
Abhay Deol plays an IAS officer from Tamil Nadu in 'Shanghai'. His character is named TA Krishnan in the film.
To play a Tamilian, Abhay Deol hired a diction coach to help him out throughout the shoot.
While talking about his character lately, Abhay Deol said, "The character that I play is egoistical, short-tempered, he is very reserved and religious person."
Director Dibakar Banerjee's forthcoming film 'Shanghai' has introduced another foreign model to the Indian audiences. British model Scarlett Mellish Wilson has done an item number 'Imported Kamariya' in 'Shanghai'.
Scarlett is not completely unknown to Bollywood as she has already worked with Saif Ali Khan in a TV commercial.
Dibakar said in an interview that Abhay Deol has done a better job than Shah Rukh Khan who played a Tamil game designer, Shekhar Subramaniam in 'Ra.One'.
Director Dibakar Banerjee says that he prefers taking calculated risk. Getting Emraan Hashmi and Abhay Deol together in a film wasn't an easy task for him.
As Dibakar claims Abhay Deol's character is the spine of 'Shanghai'.
Dibakar Banerjee says the basic idea of an item number is to lure the audiences.
Trailers of the upcoming political thriller 'Shanghai' remind the audience of the land acquisition troubles at Singur and Nandigram as well as the promise made by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of turning Kolkata into London, but director Dibakar Banerjee denies any such link.
Dibakar has earlier directed films like 'Khosla Ka Ghosla', 'Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!', 'Dibakar Banerjee'.

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Emraan Hashmi

Would you say you’ve arrived finally?

No, I think I ‘arrived’ a long time back. Just that I’m getting appreciated now for better reasons.

So, are you going the Aamir Khan way...being a perfectionist and all?

I strive for everything but perfection. I don’t believe there’s something called a perfect actor, like there's no perfect human. I remain tough on myself to keep my performance real — not too rehearsed. Flaws are fundamental part of an actor and I prefer to keep it that way.

For the first time, you sent your parents for the screening of your latest film, how was their reaction?

They loved it. And by that I mean they liked the entire film, not just my performance.

Weren't you having doubts in the beginning when the role demanded you to spot a paunch, stained teeth and appear far from cool?

Before I signed up for a film, I thought about my audience and wondered whether I’m providing them only one kind of flavour. After much deliberation, I decided I’ve got to do something drastically different this time. Having said that, I guess I needed this film more than the other way around. It was high time I changed my onscreen persona.

So should we say that a serial kisser is gone and a serious actor has taken his place?

No, I wouldn’t say that. I haven't done kissing yet! (laughs) In any case, people decide for themselves what they want to watch so I’d want both of my personas to be available. I don't wish to restrain myself by getting stuck in one mentality.

What kind of reaction were you expecting from the audiences as the well as critics towards your performance?

Well, I knew that we were banking on a new kind of cinema and it takes a lot of balls to create such a film. No wonder there’s someone like Dibakar at the helm directing us and guiding the project. So, to be very candid, I was looking forward to positive feedback.