dpEmraan Hashmi became synonymous with his “serial kisser” image during a phase of his career, but Awarapan 2 chose to leave the kisses out.
The sequel, starring Emraan Hashmi and Disha Patani and directed by Nitin Kakkar, has already crossed the Rs 100 crore India net mark in its first week. The film also gave Hashmi his career-best opening, earning Rs 22 crore on Day 1, and became his first solo hero film to cross the Rs 100 crore milestone.
But while the numbers have been grabbing headlines, one question has also been doing the rounds: how did an Emraan Hashmi film go without even a single kissing scene?
Awarapan 2 writer Bilal Siddiqui has the answer. Speaking to NDTV, Siddiqui revealed that leaving out a kissing scene was a conscious decision.
“It was a conscious decision. Yes. So Awarapan 1 also didn’t have it,” Siddiqui said.
But according to the writer, the bigger reason was Shivam’s emotional journey in the sequel. The character, played by Hashmi, is still deeply connected to the memory of his late lover.
“Now that people have seen the film, they would know that it would be kind of unfair to the character to kind of throw that in,” Siddiqui explained. “It would just look contrived.”
Siddiqui believes Shivam’s relationship with his late lover has evolved far beyond romance.
“Shivam as a character at some level still holds his lover who passed to that pedestal where he is not completely ever going to move on,” he said.
“She has transcended from just being his love. She’s become his strength and almost like a guiding force.”
And that changes what Shivam is looking for. “His priority is not necessarily moving on romantically. He’s got a larger fight to fight,” Siddiqui said.
So where did that leave the possibility of a romantic kissing scene?
“I think a kiss and all of that never came into mind at all because we didn’t find an organic way to lead to that with this character,” the writer said.
The makers were also aware of the audience expectations attached to Hashmi.
“I know what people expect of Emraan,” Siddiqui said.
But the writer has a cheeky answer for those waiting to see Hashmi return to his trademark territory: “I guess he’ll do it in another film.”
For Awarapan 2, though, the decision was clear. The kiss was never needed because, as Siddiqui puts it, Shivam has a “larger fight to fight.”
