Emraan Hashmi has been playing a diverse range of roles in his film career that has spanned across two decades. However,  in this hallmark of his diverse filmography, he has portrayed characters with complex shades of grey . Whether it was an intense lover or a fighter, Emraan has the ability to portray to its best . His characters have been the rougher than the normal ones for a Bollywood.

Emraan Hashmi talks about him playing grey characters. 

Emraan Hashmi will next be seen as a customs official in Neeraj Pandey’s web series, Taskaree. Does he feel complete with such characters, whether he seeks them out or not?    He said he has no idea and from the start of his career with his first film Footpath, wherein he plays the role of a gangster with a heart of gold. And then inherently, these roles became the nature of the characters that he was playing .  He said his roles may have looked like grey kind of characters, but there was something human about them.  He said he is not cut out for just the heroes and villains, as he finds them extremely boring and likes his roles to be slightly more layered and not have one dimensional heroes or villains. In grey shades of acting , he finds it more relatable to the scenario.

Emraan also went on to say that by playing relatable grey characters in the films for a long he feels the storytelling gets more experimental with the characters. Over 10 years in the film industry, whether its is OTT or theatrical business, the actors are all playing characters, whether its of a hero or a villain . In the 90s and 2000, there was only one dimension but now it is evolved and there is more subject added to these characters, making it more exciting not only for the actors but also for the viewers.  With the new concept, the audience has also matured and there is a market to watch these different stories unfold and he thinks it’s a pattern shift for players on OTT like Netflix.

Commercial cinema made for theatres has a limited scope of storytelling. 

Emraan argued that the commercial cinema has little scope and, in his opinion, the theatrical view is very limited.  One has to make it universal . One has to get everyone to come into the hall. You’ve to get the families watching together, so one can’t experiment there. 

When reminded of his most recent starrer, Haq by Supam Varma which was acclaimed for its narrative, Emraan countered it with that he was talking about huge money spinners , films like Haq , which are few and these kind are probably two or three in the entire year, but the real cutting edge happens on the OTT .He talks about Adolescence which swept the awards, it could not have done in a theatre . Web series gives the opportunity to play the characters and allows the actors to get deep dive into the characters that’s where the shades of grey you find in the humanity said the actor. 

About Taskaree 

It is a Smuggler’s Web so to say with Emraan Hashmi’s upcoming movie helmed by Neeraj Pandey for Netflix. It stars Sharad Kelkar, Amruta Khanvilkar, Zoya Afroz, Nandish Sandhu and Anurag Sinha.  The series premieres on January 14th 2026 and is ready for its release.