Emraan Hashmi on ‘Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web’: ‘Not surprised everyone enjoying it globally’
New Delhi: Emraan Hashmi isn’t surprised that his ‘pulpy’ thriller ‘Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web’ has become the first Indian series to debut at the number one spot on Netflix’s global top 10 non-English TV list in the first week of its release.
Created by filmmaker Neeraj Pandey and co-directed by Raghav Jairath, the show focuses on the high-stakes world of airport customs and how its officers serve the nation while staying out of the spotlight. Hashmi plays one such officer pitted against a seasoned smuggler.
“You just hope for everyone to like your show. The intention was for it to kind of work in a big way in India. I got a call from my manager and he’s like, ‘It’s gone global and it’s reached the number one spot so fast. So, I asked him, ‘Can you say this again?’ I’m still processing it. But it’s great. It’s very pulpy, thrilling and a fast watch. It’s everything that a show should be. I’m not very surprised that everyone’s enjoying the show across the globe. I know after this show, people are going to see airports in a very different light,” Hashmi told PTI.
‘Taskaree’, which premiered on the streaming platform on January 14, is among Netflix's growing slate of Indian breakouts globally, following the success of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’, Aryan Khan’s ‘The Ba****ds of Bollywood’ and ‘IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack’, created by Anubhav Sinha.
According to Pandey, the idea was to tell a unique story with ‘Taskaree’. “It should be about something that the viewers have not seen. It should be a new world. That newness, I believe, is the thing that all storytellers look out for. And that’s exactly what we chased with this,” he said.
Tanya Bami, Series Head, ‘Netflix India’, said their team was ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the show’s potential to travel beyond India through the platform, which has over 300 million paid subscribers in over 190 countries. “We all knew the intensity of the idea and the scope that it had. It’s a never-before-seen world and thriller. Neeraj brings these things alive as nobody else can with the flair and simplicity of a narrative that everyone across borders can watch. And when you add Emraan as a nice ‘tadka’ (extra flavour), then it really lands. We knew that there was something special in here and just needed the audience verification, which we got with a lot of love from all over the world,” Bhami said.
For Hashmi, whose debut streaming show was Netflix’s ‘Bard of Blood’ in 2019, it was a dream-come-true collaboration. “There’s never been a piece made on a story that revolves around our customs officers. I think that was a novelty that kind of drew me in. Obviously, I am also working with Neeraj and ‘Netflix’ again. It was like a dream team. And you’d be a fool to say no to something like this,” he said.
