Box office pressure makes actors jittery, says Emraan

“Obsession with numbers gets the thrill out of working in films. Everything can’t be equated only with numbers. Sometimes, it is a small film and you crush the spirit of the film because it may not do the kind of numbers,” said Emraan.

“But it is appreciated to a certain extent and people need to understand that. They need to understand what the film tries to do. And not equate everything with the box office numbers,” he said.

The 37-year-old actor has tried to strike a balance between commercial and off-beat movies with films like The Dirty Picture and dark-comedy Ghanchakkar. His recent films, however, did not perform well at the box office, including Hamari Adhuri Kahani, Mr X and Raja Natwarlal.

When asked if the box office pressure dictates an actor’s choice of films, Emraan said, “In some films it does, in some films you like to take a risk. But I think the more you have news articles coming out, the media talking about these terms, then it also gets the actors jittery. They are afraid of trying something new.” 

The Jannat star feels that an actor will  either be afraid to move out of his comfort zone or will be forced to try new things as that is something, which the industry dictates.

The actor, whose latest Azhar released last Friday, swears he never gets “swayed” by the numbers and feels the talk about film business is annoying. Emraan also has an issue with audience judging a film just by the ‘star ratings’.