Idea was to not go overboard with jingoistic angle: Emraan Hashmi on ‘Ground Zero’

Actor Emraan Hashmi says the idea behind his upcoming film “Ground Zero”, based on the heroism of a real life BSF officer, was to tell an honest story without going overboard with the jingoistic elements.

The action-thriller, produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment, chronicles the story of BSF officer Narendra Nath Dhar Dubey, who led the operation to track the mastermind behind the 2001 terrorist attacks on the Parliament and Akshardham Temple.

“The whole idea from my first discussions of getting into a film like this was not to go overboard with the jingoistic angle. I think that looks a little forced, over the top. The audience, while watching the film, also feels a sense of being disconnected from the truth of the story,” Hashmi said in an interview.

The actor, known for films such as “Awarapan”, “Murder”, Jannat”, “Once upon a time in Mumbai”, “The Dirty Picture”, “Shanghai” and “Tiger 3”, said they wanted to stay true to the real life story as much as possible.

“We wanted to tell the story with the right elements of drama, entertainment and that truth and honesty keeping in mind what happened in 2001. Drama is something that if you just overdo it, it can just tip over,” he added.

Citing the example of the dialogue ‘Prahar Hoga’ from the film, the actor said while the drama element needs to have a certain “pitch” and “tonality”, it must resonate with the audience.

“I can bet my life that  Dubey didn’t get up on a truck and started yelling at his juniors, saying ‘Prahar Hoga’. But, if that protocol would take place in an office or somewhere else, then that would be the most boring thing because if you have to heighten up the drama, you’ve got to whip it up. If that went into the jingoistic (zone), then it would look very fake.”

The 46-year-old actor said he met Dubey, whom he described as a humble individual, to get insight into his character as he didn’t want it to be a “mimicry”.

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“You’re making a film that’s representative of the world of the Border Security Force (BSF), you can’t go wrong on that. Everything has to be to the ‘T’, the man himself, because it is up there for posterity. Their families are going to be watching this, so you’ve to be very cognizant of that and very sensitive to that.”

The Mumbai-born Hashmi reflected on the experience of filming in Kashmir for “Ground Zero” and said he was captivated by the region’s beauty.

“We didn’t face any issues. We have shot in crowded places, markets, streets, and people were civil and nice to us, they were supportive too. We had the support system of all the security agencies there also. So, that also helped. It’s a place which, unfortunately, has a history there,” he said.

“Ground Zero”, also starring Sai Tamhankar and Zoya Hussain in prominent roles, is set to release on April 25.