Emraan Hashmi on how he battled his son’s cancer...and more

Emraan Hashmi has got a new release ‘Raja Natwarlal’ opens up about everything from films, his son’s health and even his childhood…

The excerpts:

Struggling actor

“Early in my career, I was doing an acting course from Roshan Taneja. I was not ready to act in films, but then I was still auditioned by Tanuja Chandra for a film called ‘Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar’, which featured Govinda and Amisha Patel. But then I was very scared during the auditions and Amisha Patel who saw my audition felt that I could not act and I was thrown out. Jimmy Shergill got that role.

“Then I started off in a negative roles. I was then relegated to a side hero. My first five years in the industry was more of a struggle. Then I did a lot of erotic thrillers which got me a lot of flak and people criticized my performances as well.

A jolt in life

“Everything seemed normal till that day when we came back from a vacation and my son Ayan was diagnosed with cancer.

“A few days before that when he fell down on the carpet while playing and his urine had blood and we wanted to go in for a blood test. We wondered, how he would handle the pain of the needle during the test. And as luck would have hit the little one had a CT Scan, a brain marrow test and chemo therapy within a week’s time.

“Parents also need to learn that cancer is treatable. It does take time. It took us 6-8 months, but we need to know that it is curable with proper treatment. The doctors removed half a kilo of an orange looking tumour from his body because he was in the second stage. His weight was increasing, but we didn’t really know what the reason was for the same.

Work continues

“I still had to work despite all that. My wife Parveen and I had taken him to Canada, but then I had to return to work after that. I had to shoot both of ‘Raja Natwarlal’ and ‘Mr X’, because the films were on the floors. I could not let go of other offers as well as I had to be working to pay the hospital bills. The treatment was of a high cost and I needed the monies as well.

“I reluctantly took the flight back home and I could not sleep for the next ten days. I spent my time doing Namaaz and praying for my son that I should get his cancer and should absorb all his pain. Adults take a while to recover. Children thankfully heal faster and he was running around the hospital two days after the operation.
 
My childhood

“My childhood is perhaps the best part of my life. I grew up at Bandra in Mumbai and it was a great place to be in. I was very innocent looking child and any mischief I did was not attributed to me and someone else had to face the flak.

“Once we wanted to make a tennis court in our backyard and we were clearing it. Unfortunately a huge fire started off because of my deeds and the fire brigade had to be called to douse it. I had made such a poor face that no one could think that the fire was created by me!

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