The EMRAAN Love Formula!!!

supporting role in the forgettable "Footpath"), Emraan has somehow always managed to strike a chord
with his audience - and deliver hit films with hit songs.

The songs have undoubtedly helped, and it's surprising how many love songs he's been associated with. There's one for almost each film, sometimes more. The notion that a hit Emraan love song is followed more often than not by a hit film is so widely accepted now that recently, there was news that for Emraan's upcoming "Shanghai", director Dibakar Banerjee was forced to include a Sufi love song picturised on the actor. But Mahesh Bhatt, Emraan's uncle, says, "Dibakar is too strong a man to be influenced or arm-twisted into including something in his movie that he wishes not to. But if he has 'yielded to the pressure', then I'm sure it will be for the well being of the movie."

Watch: Making of Emraan Hashmi's Sufi song 'Khudaya' l Watch: Khudaya song: Shanghai

Dibakar, who was initially apprehensive about including a promotional song in his political thriller, has now shot the song himself. He says, "It's true that the music label insisted on the inclusion of the song for promotional purposes, but that was because the song is great, it is a sure-shot hit. They (T-Series) said that with the kind of image Emraan has, this is the sort of music they wanted. Initially, I was apprehensive - more than that, I was a little rattled because I like to be in control, and not because they wanted me to include a Sufi love song on Emraan." In fact, Dibakar says the love song is quite apt. "There was never any controversy over the song, because there is love between Emraan and Kalki's characters. The film is, to a great extent, about Jogi (Emraan) and Shalini's (Kalki) chemistry."

And what does he think makes Emraan click as a lover boy? "First, I don't agree with this word 'lover boy'. It makes him sound like a womaniser. Emraan is not that, he is a romantic. For me, Emraan's main gift is that in an emotional situation, you don't need to give him any dialogues; he can emote beautifully with his face and eyes. And the Sufi song "Khudaya" takes full advantage of this gift," says Dibakar.

Director Milan Luthria, who has directed Emraan in movies like "Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai" and "The Dirty Picture", says, "It's not as if Emmi (as Emraan is called) finds specific tunes that later became big hits, it's the other way around - hit songs find him." Kunal Deshmukh, who's directed Emraan in the recent hit, "Jannat 2", says, "Emraan can lip-sync so convincingly that it makes everything believable. If you see my song "Tu Hi Mera", there's nothing extraordinary about it or the way it's been shot. It is just a guy romancing a girl, with an Old Delhi backdrop, but he added a lot of character to the song."

Emraan's detractors, on the other hand, would say that he's been lucky and that he's coasting on the patronage of his uncles Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt. But the Bhatts have a different take on that. "We never cast him as the hero. In fact, in his first film "Footpath", he was a supporting actor. In "Murder" and "Gangster", he played a villain. In "Kalyug", he had a guest appearance and in "Jannat", he was the bad boy with a heart of gold. He was slowly nudged into the leading man's role. It is only after " Once Upon A Time..." and "Jannat" that the industry started taking him seriously," says Mahesh.

As far as Emraan and his hit song connect is concerned, Bhatt says, "I'd say that he has been lucky to get films which had great music, just like Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor and Dilip Kumar. Whatever song they did became a huge hit."

But is it just luck, or something else, that makes every director include a love song featuring Emraan? While Emraan says "I look the way I look" and "I can't dance to save my life," Milan says that it is this very quality that makes him a hit. "We all want to be flamboyant, naughty and bad, but are bound by society or family. But when people see Emraan, a common man, an autowallah or a taxi driver, secretly hopes to be as cocky as he is. His musical connect is not an elite connect," says the director. Kunal agrees, saying, "Emraan is very average looking - he looks like one of us - and it is this ordinariness that has made him what he is."

"Shanghai", produced by PVR Pictures, releases on June 8


Link - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/The-Emraan-love-formula/articleshow/13148745.cms