Actor Emraan Hashmi feels Bollywood today is so obsessed with trade collections that it not only takes away the thrill of working, but also makes the actors jittery.
Emraan has featured in several blockbuster films like "Murder", "Gangster" and "Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai", apart from starring in relatively smaller movies like "Shanghai" and "Ek Thi Daayan".
"Obsession with numbers gets the thrill out of working in films. Everything can't be equated only with numbers. Sometimes, it is a small film and you crush the spirit of the film because it may not do the kind of numbers," Emraan told PTI in an interview.
"But it is appreciated to a certain extent and people need to understand that. They need to understand what the film tries to do. And not equate everything with the box office numbers," he said.
The 37-year-old actor has tried to strike a balance between commercial and off-beat movies with films like "The Dirty Picture" and dark-comedy "Ghanchakkar".
His recent films, however, did not perform well at the box office, including "Hamari Adhuri Kahani", "Mr X" and "Raja Natwarlal".
When asked if the box office pressure dictates an actor's choice of films, Emraan said, "In some films it does, in some films you like to take a risk. But I think the more you have news articles coming out, the media talking about these terms, then it also gets the actors jittery. They are afraid of trying something new."
The "Jannat" star feels either an actor will be afraid to move out of his comfort zone or will be forced to try new things as that is something, which the industry dictates.
"Either that or the actors are pushed to try something new. Because the industry dictates, 'Ok he is not doing anything new, so he should do something new'. But no one really knows what works or doesn't work," he said.
