Emraan Hashmi says he has been stopped at immigration checks as he ‘fits the bill of somebody’: ‘I have been whisked away to the side’

Emraan Hashmi will next be seen in Neeraj Pandey’s Taskaree The Smuggler’s Web.

Neeraj Pandey’s fascination with men in uniform, often moustachioed, continues unabated. The filmmaker returns with yet another narrative, this time diving into the high-stakes world of customs officers in his upcoming web series Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web. Headlined by Emraan Hashmi and Sharad Kelkar, the Netflix show promises a rather pulpy look at smuggling and surveillance. The trailer of Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web, which is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on January 14, was launched in Mumbai. During the event, Emraan who plays a customs officer in the series, was asked if he had ever been stopped or questioned by customs officials at an airport. The actor nodded and shared a personal anecdote.

When asked whether he had ever been stopped at the green channel, Emraan said, “No, I think they have been very sweet to me. Whenever I have travelled back, they have been very sweet. But there is this sense of overpowering fear, it’s not logical. It’s like when you learn how to drive, but when you see an RTO officer on the road, you suddenly get anxious. So that’s what happens. When I’m travelling alone, even though I’ve packed only clothes, you still feel like you’re carrying 100 kilos of contraband in your bag while walking through the green channel.”

He further added, “But it’s not at all logical. I have been called out at immigration checks very early on, probably because of earrings or stuff, when I used to travel alone. But now, when they see me with my sweet family, they don’t suspect me. Earlier, in the early 2000s, I used to get whisked away to the side quite a bit. That is called profiling. I fit the bill of somebody, but I don’t know who that person was.”

During the trailer launch, Neeraj Pandey also took a playful dig at Emraan Hashmi’s long-standing on-screen image, often associated with intense romance. Joking about casting him in a family-friendly series, Neeraj said, “The only challenge was making a family-friendly show with Emraan. That was quite a challenge, but we managed to pull it off.” Reacting instantly, Emraan laughed and added, “Well, I controlled myself for the show.”

Neeraj Pandey last helmed Season 2 of Special Ops, while Emraan Hashmi was recently seen in Haq, which is currently streaming on Netflix.