It did not sound like a speech. It did not sound rehearsed. It sounded like something said after a long pause, maybe after a coffee had gone cold. The kind of sentence you arrive at only when you have already lived through the consequences of not saying it sooner.
When Emraan Hashmi told Hindustan Times that you cannot afford to be average anymore, it was not dramatic. It was almost plain. And that is exactly why it stuck.
Hashmi has been around long enough to remember when the rules were softer. When showing up on time and delivering something passable could still buy you goodwill. When audiences complained, sure, but they returned anyway. Back then, cinema moved more slowly. Fewer screens. Fewer comparisons. Less noise coming in from everywhere else.
That world is gone.
Today’s audience does not wait. They do not forgive boredom. They do not stick around out of habit. They watch a Norwegian crime show in the afternoon, a Korean drama at night, and something Indian in between, all on the same device, all judged by the same instincts. Once you have seen that level of writing and performance, your tolerance changes. Permanently.
Hashmi understands this shift in a way that feels earned, not theorized. He credits OTT platforms for it, and not in a polite, promotional way. Streaming, he admits, has made actors uncomfortable. It has made shortcuts obvious. It has made lazy work impossible to hide. Average stories do not fail slowly anymore. They disappear quietly.
There is no bitterness in how he talks about it. If anything, there is relief. Because clarity, even when it is demanding, is easier than confusion. OTT forced a reckoning. It told actors, very plainly, that they would now be judged on intention and execution, not familiarity.
He also touches on something that rarely gets said honestly. Longevity does not come from chasing success. It comes from believing in your choices, even when they misfire. Especially when they misfire. A stumble, he says, teaches more than a hit that arrives too easily. Careers are not built in straight lines. They are built in corrections.
That perspective shows up in the work he has been choosing lately. The performances people have responded to are not designed to please. They are quieter, darker, more internal. They sit with discomfort instead of smoothing it over. These are not roles that shout for attention. They wait for it.
When the conversation turns to what is next, Hashmi is careful not to romanticize the past. Yes, Awaarapan 2 is happening, but he shuts down the nostalgia angle immediately. He is not interested in revisiting something just because it once worked. The story has to justify itself. Otherwise, there is no reason to go back.
Other projects like Gunmaster and the Telugu film G2 sit ahead, but what is more telling is where his curiosity is pulling him. He has spoken about wanting to play something truly dark, even a psychopath. Not for shock. For depth. For the kind of role that demands you show up fully or not at all.
What stays with you after reading his words is the respect he shows the audience. He does not talk down to them. He does not blame them for changing. He acknowledges that they have grown sharper, more exposed, more aware, and he treats that as a challenge worth rising to.
Average, in this environment, is not offensive. It is invisible.
And maybe that is the real shift. The industry is not punishing mediocrity out of cruelty. It is simply moving too fast to wait for it. Hashmi seems to understand that better than most. He is not trying to outrun the change. He is adjusting his pace to match it.
No panic. No noise. Just the quiet decision to do better, or not do it at all.
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Sana has been covering film, fame, and everything in between for over a decade. From red carpets to rehab rumors, she brings nuance, wit, and an insider’s edge to every story. When she’s not reporting, she’s probably watching Koffee With Karan reruns or doom-scrolling celebrity IG feeds.
