Born again, as dad

Dabbling in multiple roles was never too difficult for Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi. However, his toughest role so far has been that of a parent and a “superhero”, as he braved the hardships that came his way after his three-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. In a recent interview, the actor spoke about his son, the permutations and combinations of parenthood, and his much-coveted role as Mohammad Azharuddin in his upcoming film, Azhar.

Struggle as a father “My son Ayaan, when he was a three-year-old child, was suddenly diagnosed with a dreaded form of cancer and that changed our lives overnight. From New Year vacations and wonderful Sunday brunches at five-star hotels, we started visiting hospitals for the different blood tests that my son had to go through. The trauma that a patient undergoes is very different from the one that the concerned families have to face. Cancer is not something that you fight like flu or any other disease; it is not a battle that you win after medication. After three years, I still feel that I need some counselling, as it certainly had a psychological impact on me because of the emotional trauma that I underwent,” Emraan said while addressing a session at Penguin’s Spring Fever 2016.

Lessons from his son The child gives birth to a father, Emraan feels. “My son gave me a new birth; he made me the man that I was supposed to be — a responsible father. This book is a part of my life; it’s about a phase, which, in its way, was a cathartic experience. There is a moment when the parent has to rise and play the role of a ‘superhero’. Ayaan taught me that,” he affirms.

Emraan adds, “My son has also taught me this — I have learnt to be a better human being, I have learnt that life will hit you, it will knock you down on the floor but you have to get up, stumble, fall again and then get up but never give up. He has taught me that it’s okay to fail at times. From the irresponsible, ignorant bum that I was in college to becoming a responsible father, I have seen a huge transformation in my personality. I have changed my lifestyle to be a good role model for my child. I have quit smoking. I have adopted a healthy lifestyle. If you are munching on hamburgers, you can’t expect your kids to be having greens, so I eat healthy food and we do regular exercises and everything in my life revolves around my son.”

Women are strongest After seeing his wife Praveen show extraordinary strength during such a stressful situation, Emraan believes that women are “emotionally stronger” than men. “My wife was in Toronto and she was there throughout his medication process. However, while I was there to meet the medical protocol as a father, I had to come back, as an actor. You can’t lag behind as that puts your professional life at stake. While there were moments when I broke down and burst into tears, my wife was very strong emotionally throughout the process. I don’t know how she managed to be so brave, hats off to her!” the actor says.

Azhar biopic Emraan, who is currently shooting for Azhar, a forthcoming biopic of former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin, shares about his shooting experience.

“As a young kid, I was good at gully cricket but not professional cricket. It wasn’t easy to encapsulate 30 years of Azharuddin’s wonderful journey in just three months. The movie is more about his life than just his cricketing skills,” he says.

Emraan goes on, “For my role, Azharuddin helped me a lot during the shoot. I did a lot of shadow practice with him too and started connecting with the ball finally!”