Audience relate to my bold image, says Emraan

Having started his journey in Bollywood with erotic-thrillers, which earned him the tag of the serial kisser, actor Emraan Hashmi says he has no plans to shed his bold image because the audience loves him that way.

Post "The Dirty Picture", Emraan's filmi graph has taken a new turn with movies like Vishal Bhardwaj ("Ek Thi Daayan"), Rajkumar Gupta's ("Ghanchakkar") and Karan Johar's untitled film but he is in no hurry to alter his image.

"I am not looking to change my image. I know what my strong points are. Audience relate to my bold image, so I will not leave my bold image. As an actor it is my job to play different characters," Emraan, who will be next seen in 'Raaz 3' told PTI.

"I want my films to be a successful as an actor. I want to be part of various genres and play varied characters," he added. In Dibakar Banerjee's political thriller "Shanghai" this year, Emraan was seen sporting a paunch, buck tooth with a dark complexion, risking his 'serial kisser' image and did not have any lip lock scene in the movie. But unfortunately "Shanghai" did not do that well at the box office and Emraan feels audience should endorse such kind of movies also.

"For a film like 'Shanghai' you only get audience support when people start endorsing films like that.. Finding good business for it will be limited as it is a story of a country that we don't want to face, we escape from it," he said.

However, Emraan clarifies that the film was appreciated and liked by multiplex audience. "The film was liked by elite, multiplex audience it was not liked by mass audience. I want to do intelligent films like that. I would want this film to touch Rs 100 crore mark," he said.

Also, his one of the bold films "The Dirty Picture" with Vidya Balan, where she portrayed the role of southern siren Silk Smitha faced a lot of censorship hurdles before being aired on television.

"The Censor board has its own laws, we as filmmakers debate it, argue with it and sometimes we have to accept what they lay down for us. We have to sometime overwrite their laws," he said.

He feels if there is censorship on small screen, it will affect revenues. "There was a whole kind of certification issue that TV is not going to show U/A films or A films. This will affect the overall business by a higher margin. But thankfully in case of 'The Dirty Picture' it is now taken care of," Emraan said.

"Whenever these things happen, some people will agree with it and others will not. We don't have to always agree with them. But at the same time we will have to agree to some extent or the other as they are the final body that locks a film. There are rules and regulations and we have to abide by that," he added.