Emraan Hashmi’s memorable innings

Actor wonders why he keeps getting films about match-fixing

MUMBAI: Actor Emraan Hashmi — who will soon be seen in the upcoming, cricket-based film Azhar — recently shared that he wonders why he keeps getting films with a controversial match-fixing angle in them. Azhar will be Hashmi’s second film of this nature, following 2010’s Jannat.

“Jannat released six years ago and there was a match-fixing sub-plot in that as well. So I don’t know why I get only these controversial parts of cricket,” he said, while promoting Azhar. In the movie, Hashmi played the role of a bookie with a gift for predicting cricket scores and eventually starts fixing matches. The film was a success at the box-office.

In Azhar, the actor will be playing a character based on former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin, who was accused of match-fixing in 2000. After the incident, the cricketer was banned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for life. The ban was, however, lifted in 2012. “There is an inspirational story in Azhar, because Azhar bhai [Mohammad Azharuddin] helped India win with his captaincy for 10 years,” said Hashmi. He also revealed he had received valuable input from the cricket legend himself regarding this controversial aspect of the game, as well as other little known facts.



“The world of cricket is such that we have only seen it from a distance,” he claimed. “We obviously love the sport, but we don’t know about the conversations that take place in the locker rooms or the camaraderie between the players, the jokes and fights between them. We have not seen these things in detail during the 12 years of the match-fixing controversy,” Hashmi explained.

Azhar, which is slated to release on May 13, also stars actors Prachi Desai, Nargis Fakhri and Lara Dutta amongst others. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd,  2016.

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