More comfortable in underplaying emotions: Emraan Hashmi

As someone who has built a career out of commercial potboilers, Emraan Hashmi says he has always loved to stretch his acting muscles in roles that demand a subtle approach.

Subtext is often lost in mainstream movies where the emphasis is on "spoon-feeding the audiences, believes the actor, who made his Bollywood debut with "Footpath" in 2003 and followed it up with a series of masala hits.

Emraan, however, made sure to give the "high decibel" cinema a miss now-and-then in films like "Awarapan", "Jannat", "Once Upon a Time in Mumbai" and "Shanghai".

"When I started my journey in 2003, the decibels were obviously higher. In my first couple of films, there was more projection in the characters. But I believe I have always been more comfortable in subtler performances, in (exploring) the subtext. And then I also got some opportunities -- like 'Shanghai' -- where I could do it," Emraan told PTI in an interview.

The actor got a chance to return to his favourite space with his digital foray in Netflix's "Bard of Blood".

Based on Bilal Siddiqi's book of the same name, the espionage thriller will see Emraan as an expelled spy, who is recalled from his new life as a Shakespeare professor to save four Indian agents who are held as hostages in Balochistan.

Emraan says while people creating content on digital medium are aware that the audiences are smart enough to understand the subtext, filmmakers in Bollywood are still trying to spoon-feed viewers.

"In the web, because we are pitching it to the world audience, we can't be jingoistic in places where we are not meant to be. It has to be entertaining but at the same time there has to be a lot of things in subtext because audiences now like to engage with a story from their prospective. We don't need to spoon-feed them," he says.

"I don't understand why our films keep giving them everything on the platter. I am more comfortable in underplaying emotions and being less dramatic."
"When we shot everybody gave such real performances. The show made all the characters look so human. Spies have their strengths and weaknesses and we have put that out there. They do get scared."