19 August,2026 08:03 AM IST | Mumbai | Mayank Shekhar
Emraan Hashmi (centre) as Shivam Pandit in a still from ‘Awarapan 2’
There's a scene in Nitin Kakkar's Awarapan 2 - mentioned in its trailer too - where Emraan Hashmi, as the lead, says something to the effect of how his life's story is written for others.
Whether intended or not - that line feels apt for a film that is designed around the hero, of course.
But the story and politics in it are altogether between the villains, i.e. dad, two sons, and daughter - a desi mafiosi family in Thailand, into drug trade, that's secretly got into human trafficking, which has kinda split up the empire, over moral issues.
The hero is as good as a John Doe/generic bloke - with hardly a backstory beyond the rudimentary; let alone the front-story that follows.
It's sufficient to know, his mission involves rescuing a li'l girl. He must dive all the way in, to untangle the weaponised web, and bring her back.
Awarapan 2 is, obviously, a sequel. Should you care, hence, if you have watched the 2007 original, directed by Mohit Suri, and by the same producers (Mukesh Bhatt/Vishesh Films)? Obviously not.
And that's a smart move, isn't it? For, it's unlikely anyone recalls the prequel that was, supposedly, a flop at the box-office, with no shelf-life thereafter - besides the songs in the album that inevitably survive.
In particular, the track âTera mera rishta purana,' or âToh phir aao' - the sorts of sad/melancholic numbers I miss about Bollywood, in general, ever since the soundtracks got wholly Instagrammed into beats, drops, and remixes, turning cinemas into forgettable Reels + discotheques.
Awarapan 2 opens with âToh phir aao'. It's ended up becoming, arguably, the biggest commercial success for a sequel, day one onwards - when the first part itself had, so to say, bombed! Logically, this must, globally, be a unique feat.
You only build franchises, spin sequels from widely loved movies that, as a result, develop captive audiences - only too eager to figure, where the filmmakers would land those characters, or the story-line, next.
The result is what Bollywood trade-smiths call bumper âopening' (figures)! I remember once being zapped at crowds inside the first day, first show of Emraan starrer, Jannat 2 (2012).
They'd clearly loved Jannat (2008). If not, fewer people would show up for the maiden show. Box-office merely indicates number of tickets sold - hardly whether people were as happy on their way out!
How do you explain Awarapan 2, then? Well, you don't. Except, make the obvious/educated guess, which is the star, Emraan, at the centre.
In the movie, Emi/Emraan plays the lone-wolf, opposite a series of villains, starting with a Papa Don, who looks a bit like a male version of Zohra Sehgal.
This kingpin is killed off by his own son, the coke-addled, main villain, i.e. Puran Gabbi (actor Wamiqa Gabbi's brother) - every bit the menacing jerk, without any shade of grey, that usually makes you root for the hero more!
Some of the car chases are Hollywood-grade, along with the set-piece, involving a gun-fight inside a shipping container, with light streaming through bullet holes in metal. It's still regular, mid-budget Bollywood actioner, if you may.
But that's not typically an Emi movie, as we knew them to be, a sub-genre of its own, once upon a time in Mumbai, starring a seemingly unlikely âserial kisser', playing a sex-pot of sorts, lustily romancing to the tune of âSufi' songs.
The kinda movies that make Raghav Juyal's character in the Netflix series Ba'''ds of Bollywood (2025) go, "Akkha Bollywood ek taraf aur Emraan Hashmi ek taraf" - making Gen Zs perhaps wonder anew about Emi, after all.
All I recall about Awarapan is leaving a comment (in my column/review) about how ambition's a bitch, and the movie's far too serious for the star's fanboys, who may never wanna take him so seriously!
I guess a formula in pop-culture (films, fashion, etc) is often cyclical; unlike science, where it's obviously a constant. That Emi formula did fade, eventually.
Did he? The last time I saw him as lead in a proper theatrical release was probably Hamari Adhuri Kahani (2015, great soundtrack); and as the villain in Tiger 3 (2023), which even fewer Salman Khan fans would've bothered with.
That beyond the curiously crafted image of a raunchy ruffian, with an uncanny swag, Emi's also a fine actor - you could simply sample from him as the stained-teeth, paunchy pornographer in Shanghai (2012), or the dogged whistleblower against a multi-national corporation in Tigers (2014).
Seamlessly, he switched over to presumably art-house, as the male anti-hero in the female-led, critically acclaimed Haq (2025) - and into OTT, headlining the Netflix series, Taskaree (2026), a thriller on Indian Customs.
That's the thing about staying put, as Emi did - you continue to draw EMI on a long-term investment still. Awarapan 2 was possibly payment long overdue.
Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14
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