Emraan Hashmi says Bollywood actors are ‘insecure,’ wonders how many would do a film like Haq; explains why Animal worked

While Yami Gautam played Shazia Bano in Haq, Emraan Hashmi took on the role of her husband, Mohammad Abbas Khan. (Credit: Facebook/@EmraanHashmi)

Although director Suparn Verma’s Haq did not achieve the expected success at the box office, the period courtroom drama has started turning heads following its recent OTT release, with even National Award-winning actor Alia Bhatt and producer-director Karan Johar stepping forward to commend the movie, particularly the performance of lead actor Yami Gautam. Inspired by the landmark and controversial Shah Bano case of 1985, Yami played Shazia Bano, while Emraan Hashmi took on the role of her husband, Mohammad Abbas Khan, in the film.

Maintaining that not many men in the industry would be willing to take up characters like the one he essayed in Haq, Emraan recently urged actors to get over their insecurities. Condemning those calling out the glorification of wrongdoings in movies, the actor claimed that films like Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Animal (2023) succeed because they have a massive audience, predominantly men who, he said, could identify with the male leads.

“Men in our industry are very insecure,” he claimed during a conversation with News18, adding, “How many people would’ve done a film like Haq? Every narrative should showcase a man’s victory. I’m not blowing my own trumpet here. But even back then, I did a film like The Dirty Picture. I liked the subject. We need to get off our insecurities and do more stuff like that.”

Emraan continued, “But it’s very clear what’s happening today, cinematically. As far as things are going theatrically, you need a hyper-masculine man, a villain, the tropes, the clichés. It’s very evident that it’s what the audience wants. This kind of portrayal has always worked. In the 70s and the 80s, the hypermasculine era of Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna gave us films like Deewar and Trishul that worked.”

Emraan Hashmi and Yami Gautam in Haq. (Credit: Facebook/@EmraanHashmi)

Slamming the “woke culture and its brigade,” the actor pointed out, “There’s a huge uproar because a woke culture has started off through social media and generally around the world. The hypermasculine man who’s seen as toxic is what’s doing in theatres. There’s an uproar surrounding it, but that’s what people are buying tickets for. That’s predominantly how our country is. Why did a film like Animal work? Yes, there was a woke brigade working against it. There was a perception to that. But there were so many men identifying with it.”