Didn't want to make my character a typical villain: Emraan Hashmi on 'Tiger 3' role

Mumbai: The worst way to approach a negative character is to play it like one, says actor Emraan Hashmi, who decided to portray his Tiger 3 character like an “anti-hero”.

Hashmi said he saw his character of Aatish Rehman, an ex-ISI agent, as someone whose ideology does not match with the viewpoint of the protagonist, played by Salman Khan in the film.

"You have to tap into the darker side, but eventually the dynamics are the same. You have to be clear about the vision of the director. You bring in your own ideas for the character's journey, the nuances and body language, and finally play him like the hero of his own narrative. Don't play it like a villain because that's the worst way to approach the antagonist as then it becomes unidimensional,” Hashmi told PTI in an interview.

"More than a villain, he is an anti-hero, his ideology is different from the viewpoint of the protagonist. He is the hero of his own narrative... So, I had to play it from that perspective and not make him into a typical villain,” he added.

Hashmi has played negative roles of varying shades in films such as Murder, Gangster, Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai and Chehre in the past. For Tiger 3, he said the film’s team experimented with ten distinct looks. But they chose to not depict him as a stylish adversary.

"This was not pre-decided that he is going to look this way, the salt-and-pepper hair. We felt he is not someone who cares about his look. He is not a manicured villain. I decided that he will be cool, sleek, (will wear) a Ray-Ban (glasses), leather jacket kind of guy, because he is also a spy…” said the actor.

Released on November 12, Tiger 3 has collected Rs 220.25 crore nett in India in seven days. The action thriller is directed by Maneesh Sharma and produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films.

The film is a follow-up to Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Tiger Zinda Hai (2017) and a part of YRF’s ambitious spy universe that also includes Shah Rukh Khan’s character from Pathaan and Hrithik Roshan’s Kabir from War franchise. Tiger 3 sees Katrina Kaif returning as former ISI agent Zoya alongside Salman Khan’s super spy, Avinash Singh Rathore.

Hashmi said it was enjoyable to share the screen space with Salman as they already knew each other.

“And he is very comfortable to be around with. I’m fond of him and he is fond of me, so it was easy and a joy working on the set with him. I was having fun, he was having fun with the action bit. We had a good action team and it was very interesting to see the kind of moves we had in the final fight,” he said.

Casting for Tiger 3 came as a suprise for Hashmi who thought the film will be something similar to what Sharma has directed in YRF when he was approached to meet the director. Sharma is known for movies such as Band Baaja Baarat, Ladies Vs Ricky Behl, Shuddh Desi Romance and Fan.

“He said it is for the Tiger franchise. It (meeting) was during Covid-19, so I had my mask on, I removed my mask and he was like, ‘You got a chocolate face but it’s for the villain in the film!’, Hashmi said.

“He was like, ‘Emraan, if you don’t mind, we want to do a test’. I was like, ‘Go for it’. It is very important for a huge film to be clear if someone fits in visually for the character… Before I did the look test, he was like, ‘You are seeing the character the way I’m seeing it, and I’m getting a good feeling about this. Let’s do this’,” he further added.

There was speculation that Hashmi had joined the project as the main antagonist but the makers decided to keep it a secret for a long time.

“I knew you all (media) knew but I was not allowed to speak about it, so I had to make a joke about it and say, ‘I’m not part of it’ and lie through my teeth. The reason behind this was that the large portion of the audience should have been kept in the dark," Hashmi said.