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Believe it or not but Emraan Hashmi has become a huge craze in Pakistan. At the world premiere of Jannat in Lahore, there was a stampede to get a grab of the dazed ‘serial kisser’ from Mumbai.
If Jannat is the unlikely hit of the year (unlikely, because hero Emraan Hashmi has had a flop run for the last two years and Jannat itself is not the best from the Bhatt stable), there was clever strategy at work backstage.
Another surprise: Mahesh is not the only quotable Bhatt in the family. Here’s the rarely-heard Mukesh Bhatt, matching his outspoken older brother, word for word.
For a producer whose films have a certain polish, his office is amazingly overcrowded, in a tacky sort of way, like a chaotic municipal ward. But the two brothers in their rooms upstairs remain insulated from the mess below. Satisfaction hangs in the air, there’s energy in the upbeat atmosphere.
“It is a very satisfying feeling,” acknowledges Mukesh, the financial brain of the Bhatt family team. “It’s our own Sicilian clan with Mahesh Bhatt as Don Corleone,” cracks Mukesh Bhatt as he discloses how they went about creating Emraan Hashmi, the star.
“Four or five years ago we launched this boy called Emraan Hashmi and consistently backed him. Then he got lost by doing films for outsiders, very bad films like Jawani Diwani and Dil Diya, including Mr Subhash Ghai’s Good Boy Bad Boy which was disastrous. It undid all the good we had done.”
“Last year, we took a firm decision that Emraan won’t do any outside film without consulting us. Fortunately, he listened to us. He had burnt his fingers and learnt his lesson. Now, after Jannat, he is getting an average of 10 offers a day. Emraan Hashmi charges a fee of Rs 5 crore today and there’s no guarantee that he’ll do your film even if you do pay him that money.
“We have certain conditions before he’ll do a film. It has to be a solo film, he won’t do two-hero and multi star cast films. The story should revolve around him, he should be the protagonist and the film has to be made by a reputed banner which won’t compromise with the making or promotion of the film.”
Warming up to how the Bhatt family put together this hit project called Emraan Hashmi, Mukesh boasts, “One sane decision that Emraan has taken is to listen to me. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be in the position he is in today.” Thank you, Mukesh Chacha. Not only for bullying your nephew for his own good but also for making and promoting Jannat so aggressively that an average product turned out to be the biggest winner of the first half of 2008.
We didn’t just get lucky with Jannat, it was intended to be a hit,” Mukesh unabashedly thrusts out his chest. “My brother and I have the confidence to stand on our own feet. We don’t need the crutches of a star to see us through a Friday.
“In 2000, when we saw the trend of stars getting irrational prices, we took a conscious decision not to work with any stars. Believe me, our best period started from 2000.”
Look at the statistics:
“In 2001, I made Kasoor, the only silver jubilee hit that Aftab Shivdasani has had in his entire life.
“In 2002, we made a film with two newcomers called Dino Morea and Bipasha Basu, the latter was a vamp in her earlier film Ajnabee and she was the heroine of our film, Raaz.
“In 2003, once again we made a film with a new boy called John Abraham and made a hit film called Jism.
“In 2004, we gave the biggest hit of the year with Murder.
“In 2005, we had Zeher, a silver jubilee success.
“In 2006, we launched Kangana Ranaut with Gangster.
“In 2008, we’ve got Jannat.”
After challenging the star system, Mukesh now takes on finance minister P. Chidambaram. “The cost of film-making has escalated because, thanks to Chidambaram, there’s a service tax on everything. Whether you make money or not, the government makes the maximum out of you. It’s a one-way street. The worst things to have happened to the country are the Congress and Chidambaram.
“In every budget, Chidambaram looks at us like we don’t exist. In spite of that we (as an industry) are surviving for which the credit should go to us, not him. If he had his way, he’d have killed us long back!”
A big welcome to the latest refreshingly outspoken Bhatt.
