Emraan Hashmi has preferred to star in solo lead films since the beginning of his career and the actor says the decision came from the "greed" of being able to showcase the complete arc of his characters.
The 39-year-old actor, who made his debut in 2003 with multi-starrer Footpath and went on to deliver solo hits like Murder, Jannat, Awarapan, Raaz 2 among others, said it is easier to make a solo film as there are no "flying egos" on the sets.
"I'm greedy and selfish. I get more time in a solo film to play an entire arc. Not that I haven't done ensemble films but only a few. But what happens (in ensembles) is that the screen time gets divided. You don't have much time to play that whole character arc. So it comes out of selfishness," said Emraan.
"These times are the toughest to make an ensemble films... It's more to do with ego management of actors on board. Four stars or five stars and everyone has to be given their due. So it becomes tough for the producer. Solo films are easy to make because there are no flying egos," he added.
Following his initial success, Emraan went on to star in similar projects and the actor said he picked up whatever was being offered without taking the scripts in consideration. "Early on I was doing films which were just coming to me. Scripts were choosing me, rather than me choosing the scripts. There was a certain kind of cinema that was doing well and I was kind of just recreating that. It was slightly repetitive for me but afterwards, I really got passionate about acting."
The actor said things have since changed drastically in terms of content in Hindi film industry. "There was a time in our industry when new subjects were not explored as much. You have just play the star. You have to confine yourself to a box and the rules of that box. Not much out of the box stuff was being done. Slowly we started graduating towards out of the box and risk taking cinema," Emraan said.
The actor believes films such as Awarapan, Jannat, Dirty Picture and Once Upon a Time in Mumbai gave a great push to his career. "They were all different kinds of films that did well. Then I came into my own and said to myself 'Now I am going to really pay attention to myself and try my hand at different variety of roles'," he added.
The actor's last release was Why Cheat India. The concept of the film and Emraan's performance has been well-received by the audience.
He is currently working on Netflix's Bard of Blood.
