Hamari Adhuri Kahani, starring Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan, has not been well received by critics. Hashmi spoke to Bollywood Hungama's JOGINDER TUTEJA
Hamari Adhuri Kahani didn’t get favourable reviews. Has it taken a lot of people by surprise? Well, in the beginning there was a lot of bias from sections of media, some of which also got kind of personal. However, a sustained run is testament to the fact that nothing succeeds more than word of mouth. Yes, we took an initial dent due to the bias factor in the first two days, but then there was a spike and we managed to sustain. The film obviously worked on the ground level.
How do you see the bias against the film?
I know that it is a job to critique a film but it is uncalled-for when things become personal. That, I believe, is a little unwarranted. You can’t give a film like this a rating of one or one-and-a-half stars. Still, I don’t hold it against them. At the end of the day, it is one person. If someone sitting in Bombay, who considers himself to be forward thinking, feels that the film is slightly regressive then he should also think of the real India. The film has connected there because it is those people who form the target audience.
How have the conversations been between you and Bhatts, now that the film has managed to get into the safe zone commercially? We all knew that, since the film is a mature love story (instead of belonging to fluffy rom-com genre) with no action, and has me stepping into a completely new territory, it would do well basically on word of mouth. I expected that my traditional audience would find it as something new that is not known to them. We had to find a new audience, and hence we were happy when we got an opening day of a multi-billion rand. We just wanted the film to sustain well after that and this is what happened.
The film fetched you the biggest opening of all time overseas. That must have made you feel quite good. Of course, it is a high. See, till this point the kind of films I have done so far have been limited to the kind of characters I have played. However, love story as a genre lends itself to international audiences as it cuts across territories. This is my first love story and I think that is the reason why this has brought in a fresh audience. A new segment has woken up, since so far the genres that I was doing were not to their taste. Now, I think I have managed to cater for them.