In the last decade, Emraan Hashmi has made over 20 films, but shooting for his latest Mr. X was unlike anything he had experienced before. In this Vikram Bhatt sci-fi thriller, Emraan plays a man who becomes invisible and uses his power to right all the wrong that’s been done to him. “In the initial days of the shoot, I felt so lost. I had no clue what was going on around me. In all the films I have done, we’ve never used as much special effects. It was weird to have a green screen as a background. Also, unlike most other shoots, where you can look at the monitor and get a sense of what the scene would finally look like, for this film, I had no clue until the special effects guys finished. So, it was all a new and interesting experience for me,” says the actor, who celebrated his 36th birthday last month.
Explaining more about the special effects in Mr. X, Emraan says, “There are portions where my character is invisible, and others where he is partially visible. We couldn’t decide which scenes would have me invisible and which would have been flickering. So, we ended up shooting all the scenes like a regular film and then the special effects guys worked their magic.” The upside to doing a film where one is invisible is that you don’t shoot as much. “The VFX team has a bigger challenge with this film than me. I wasn’t required much, so I would pack up early very often.”
Many have wondered if Mr. X is inspired by Mr. India or Hollywood films like Hollow Man and The Invisible Man. Emraan insists that the similarities begin and end with the lead characters being invisible. “Look, I love Mr. India. But Raghu’s story is nothing like Arun’s (Anil Kapoor’s character in Mr. India). There are no orphaned children or even a watch with a button that turns Raghu invisible. There are only a handful of films made with invisible characters so I understand why people think we are inspired, but it couldn’t further from the truth.” Emraan sees Mr. X more as a revenge saga. “So, Raghu works in the anti-terrorist squad and during an operation, he is burnt inside a refinery. He is suspended somewhere between life and death… where his body stops reflecting light. So, it’s more like a disease than a power.”
His last four films might have flopped at the box office, but Emraan doesn’t seem too perturbed. “It’s all a part and parcel of this business. You can’t lose sleep over films not working just the way you can’t get blockbusters affect you.” And, it helps that Emraan has a whole slew of interesting films lined up, including Mohit Suri’s Hamari Adhuri Kahani. Interestingly, Emraan reveals that he wasn’t very keen on the film the first time he heard the narration of the story that’s written by his uncle Mahesh Bhatt. “Bhatt saab forced me to do this film. For some reason, the film didn’t work for me when I heard the first narration. But now that I have finished shooting, I am just so grateful that he made me do the film. I know it’s going to be an important film of my career.” This film that pairs him with Vidya Balan after The Dirrty Picture revolves around Bhatt’s stepmother and the choices she made in her life.
Emraan is also understandably excited about playing Mohammad Azharuddin in the biopic based on the tumultuous personal and professional life of the former India captain and cricketer. “Playing a real person is always a challenge. To play someone who is living and will see you portraying his life on screen is even scarier. So, it’s not surprising that I’ve been having sleepless nights. I have to pull this off. I have to be as similar to the real Azhar as is humanly possible.”
An integral part of Emraan’s prep includes playing cricket. “I have been practising for hours every day. The idea is to get at least 50 overs every day so that by the time I face the camera, the bat looks natural in my hand. Azhar was a very ‘wristy’ player… his style was so distinctive and I have to get his techniques down pat. There is a lot preparation to do for this film and that’s the most exciting part.”