Emraan Hashmi says Mahesh Bhatt told him he’d ‘throw’ him out of his debut if he was ‘bad’, details his birth as ‘bold’ star: ‘Its business not charity’

“They wanted to have their own home-grown star, that’s where I came in,” Emraan says. His filmography is dotted with Vishesh Films projects such as Murder, Kalyug, Zeher, Awarapan, Jannat, Raaz, Tum Mile among others.

“I took baby steps in the industry, it wasn’t that I had a grand launch. They were also taking a chance with me, they probably didn’t think I would have the acting chops. Actually no one in my family thought I did. My grandmother felt I shouldn’t get into movies because I traditionally didn’t have that mindset of wanting to become an actor.

“My mom was really scared for me. But they felt, ‘Ok, he probably will have the presence, let’s try him.’ My first film was as a supporting actor and I gradually worked my way up in a company that at that time was making small films. But we were trying to set ourselves apart with bold content, great music, wonderful artistes. The films were widely successful. Those small budgets films then became medium budget ones and later big budgets,” he says.

But being related to the Bhatt brothers didn’t come with a golden spoon. The actor says he has his own share of stories with the brothers and recalls how the tone for his acting journey was set when Mahesh Bhatt told him–without mincing any words–“if you are not good in that first shot, and then subsequently in the scenes, we will throw you out of this film.”

The actor recalls, “He told me, ‘Then you can forget about acting.’ He put the fear in me and said I better get my act together. He was clear, he said we can’t put our money on you if the audience doesn’t endorse you, if you are not a good actor, because we are not here for charity. ‘We are probably a part of the same family, but we can’t do beyond this,’ because it is a business. That set the tone for me, I had to be on toes and prove myself,” he adds.

Emraan Hashmi will be seen a producer in his next, Showtime. The Disney Plus Hotstar series is created and written by Sumit Roy with Mihir Desai attached as a showrunner. Directed by Mihir and Archit Kumar and backed by Karan Johar, the show also stars Rajeev Khandelwal, Mouni Roy, Naseeruddin Shah, Mahima Makwana and Shriya Saran in key roles. It’ll premiere on March 8.