Actor Emraan Hashmi got his big break in Anurag Basu’s 2006 erotic thriller, Murder. Hashmi played the antagonist role of an obsessive lover, who had several kissing scenes in the film.
After Murder, the actor continued lip-lock sequences in his other movies that landed him being labelled as a ‘serial kisser’ of Bollywood in the early 2000s.
Emraan Hashmi reacts to his ‘serial kisser’ tag
During a new podcast on journalist Shubhankar Mishra’s YouTube channel, Emraan Hashmi spoke about being typecast as a serial kisser in Hindi films.
“I think bahot saare artists ke sath ek patent cheez ho jaati hai, ek image set ho jaata hai, aur wo unka saath nahin chodhta hai (With many artists it becomes a patent thing, an image is set, and it doesn’t leave them),” Hashmi said.
Referring to Shah Rukh Khan, the Showtime actor said that the superstar has had an illustrious career, however, he is mostly identified with his signature arms opening pose.
Hashmi called it a “compliment” for Shah Rukh while adding that Salman Khan removes his T-shirt in films and Anil Kapoor has ‘Jhakaas’ dialogue as their patent things.
Emraan Hashmi opens up on selling his ‘serial kisser’ image in films
Emraan Hashmi further shared that an actor has a label that becomes an “easy identification”. Citing his example, Hashmi said that he would be identified as a serial kisser for many films in his career.
“I don’t blame the audience. A large part of my career until 2009, 7-8 saal tak, woh image tha mera jo producers sell kar rahe the. Mai khud sell kar raha tha (A large part of my career till 2009, for 7-8 years, it was my image that the producers were selling. I was selling it myself),” the actor shared.
Talking about performing lip-lock scenes in Murder, Hashmi said that it was a “sticking point” in the Hindi cinema as the audience hadn’t watched such “bold quotient” and “unapologetic rebellious characters” back then.
During those times, his characters were “tainted” and would do “unethical activities” unlike other heroes who would be “righteous”, the actor added.
Emraan Hashmi was last seen in a cameo role in Sara Ali Khan‘s 2024 film, Ae Watan Mere Watan. He has two Telugu films, OG and G2 in his kitty.
