'It's better late than never!' - Emraan Hashmi and Shriya Saran on reuniting after Awarapan in Showtime | Exclusive

Showtime, the upcoming series on Disney+ Hotstar, marks the reunion of Emraan Hashmi and Shriya Saran, nearly 17 years after the release of Awarapan. The actors became an iconic duo on screen, and the songs from the film are still widely popular. Ahead of the release of Showtime, OTTplay caught up for an exclusive chat with both Emraan and Shriya, wherein we asked them if they found any changes in each other while reuniting after nearly two decades.

Emraan Hashmi on reuniting with Shriya Saran

Emraan told us, "I don't believe there are any changes in her. I believe she's as young and beautiful as ever, and she's still the thorough professional she was when I worked with her in 2006, when we shot in Jaipur. At that time, I saw someone who was kind of great with the craft—someone who was very naturalistic and easy to work with—and she just put her heart and soul into the project. I think that's something that's not changed for so many years."

Talking about what took them so long to get back together on screen, the actor went on to share, "I don't know why we've got the opportunity to play something again after that, because it was a pairing that was widely loved, performances were loved, and everything was a tick for the film. We should have done something more. But yeah, it's better late than never."

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Shriya Saran's perspective

On the other hand, Shriya was all praise for Emraan's nature and his sense of humour. She stated, "When I met Emraan on the sets of Awarapan, I'd seen all his work; he was this big actor, this big star. I was amazed at how down-to-earth and simple he was. What I remember clearly about him is a sense of humour; he could make anybody laugh. But he was always very calm, no matter how difficult the situation was. After so many years of working with him all over again, he's still so simple, so down to earth, and still has a sense of humour going on. It is hard to be an actor when you have so many ups and downs, especially for him; he has many big hits, and he's reinvented himself."

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The actor couldn't stop gushing about him and further said, "Success tends to play with your head, but it hasn't. He's still really grounded, and that's a very rare thing for an actor to have. It's very precious, so I hope he stays the same, and I hope I work more with him. But honestly, it's really refreshing to see someone who's very talented, who's widely accepted and loved, and who's a star, but when on set, just a simple human being."

Showtime also stars Rajeev Khandelwal, Mouni Roy, and Mahima Makwana in the lead roles. The series will premiere on Disney+ Hotstar on March 8, 2024.

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