TLI Staff
Emraan Hashmi is all set to explore web space for the first time with Netflix series Bard of Blood, directed by Ribhu Dasgupta and produced by SRK’s production house Red Chillies Entertainment. The espionage drama is adapted from Bilal Siddiqui’s novel of the same name. The actor five years back had also launched the book, and is now making his digital debut with a screen adaptation of the same.
In Bard of Blood, Emraan Hashmi plays a former RAW agent Kabir Anand who’s recalled from his new life as a Shakespeare professor in Panchgani to save his country and is sent on a covert mission with analyst Isha Khanna (Sobhita Dhulipala) and another undercover agent Veer Singh (Vineet Kumar Singh) to rescue four RAW agents captured in Balochistan.
Emraan is excited about the project considering it is very well made but shooting for Bard of Blood in Ladakh and Rajasthan’s extreme temperatures was not easy for him and the entire team.
Emraan Hashmi is glad Bard of Blood is not a movie as he could not imagine a spy singing a song and filming action sequences that defied the law of physics.
Here’s what the actor had to say about starring in Bard of Blood at the show’s premiere event.
On making digital debut
“It’s a different format and I am very excited about it because this goes out to 190 countries across the world, 150 million subscribers Netflix has. I am very happy to be breaking into a new market. I am very happy with the way show has been made. We all have been working very hard for the past one year from star cast, Red Chillies production house, direction, camera team. Hope ab wo mehnat rang laayegi.”
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On calling SRK an idiot
“I felt very bad about the things I had to say to SRK in the trailer. Unka ek bahot hi profound impact raha hai mujh par as an artist, as a person. I have grown up watching his films. I have called him dhakkan and dabba in this trailer. Unke sar par wo cloth ka bag lagaya. I felt bad, but then professionally one has to do justice to it. But it was a good concept and I don’t think any other actor has that self deprecating humour that Shah Rukh Khan is blessed with. He is just fantastic.”
Shooting in extreme temperatures
“More than the extreme temperatures, shooting in Ladakh was challenging because of oxygen deprivation. Especially when we are directly travelling from Mumbai to Ladakh, from 0 feet se 13 k feet in few hours, it can really play havoc with your lungs considering the lack of oxygen. We have shot for a lot of action sequences there and it was not at all easy but we had a supportive crew that made it all possible.”
On why Bard of Blood couldn’t be a movie
“It’s not compressing a lot of things from the book, and keeping things intact. The series is doing justice to its characters and adding more things. It wouldn’t be as effective as a film because then you have a mandatory four songs and that’s not fun in a spy film. You cannot have a spy singing a song. It defies logic and you have action that defies the law of physics,” Emraan said in an interview with NDTV Good Times.
Adapting a book into a series
“The job is done when you have great writers. The challenging thing was for the writers who had to decide what to take from the book and use it into a series. Netflix helped a lot in the process and there was a bit of training for writers. Mayank and Bilal understood from Netflix this is how you bring the character to the screen. These are the hook points and they took it from there. For an actor it’s just playing out a film character. It’s a wider arc but if you pinpoint your beginning, middle and end, it pretty much is the same you play out any character,” he said.