Emraan Hashmi’s last release, Tony D’Souza’s Azhar, which was based on the controversial life of former Indian cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin, somewhere failed to live up to the hype. Emraan agrees and goes on to explain what went wrong with the Ekta Kapoor production. “The media clearly questioned whether Azhar was about a fallen hero, who rises from the ashes. Cricketer Azharuddin might have been vindicated by the court and given the clean chit but the perception of the public and his fans is quite different. For most he still appears as a person who sold the team out,” says Emraan adding that the media was also skeptical about the film being a PR exercise, which it wasn’t.
Emraan adds, “Whereas we went with the clear thought that because he has been vindicated by the court, we have to make him a hero eventually. Unfortunately, a major chunk of population didn’t want see him that way because they believed otherwise. They said, ‘Oh this is a gross misinterpretation of what we see as his life’. They regard Azhar as a controversial guy and they see him in a grey zone. The end was something people didn’t expect.” He opines, “So either the film shouldn’t have been made or then it should have been based on how people analyse his life.”
The coming month will see the release of yet another biopic based on the current skipper of the Indian cricket team, MS Dhoni. Directed by Neeraj Pandey is titled M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, it has Sushant Singh Rajput playing the sporting legend. Emraan insists there’s no similarity between the two biopics. “I haven’t followed Dhoni’s life much. I see Azhar and Dhoni as two different individuals. One is perceived as a ‘fallen hero’ and the other is a star and worshipped as an idol. The two can’t be compared. A large section of the audience falls between the age group of 15 – 35. That category of the audience couldn’t relate to Azhar because they have not grown up watching him. The same section of the audience has watched Dhoni play and are familiar with his career. So, somewhere the Dhoni film has an edge.”
Will he be more careful while saying yes to a biopic next time? “You never know. In retrospect people do go wrong. If everyone was that cautious then we’d have only hit films. On paper everything seems right but when the film releases it may not seem so. But that’s beauty of filmmaking. Har film ki apni kundali hoti hai. Some work and some don’t. You can make it as honestly as you can. And then hope that the audience and the trends of the time allow that film to blossom,” he says. Emraan believes in remaining positive and is hopeful about his forthcoming film, Raaz Reboot, the fourth installment of the superhit franchise.
Comments
Post a Comment