Airports can make even the calmest travellers uneasy and Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi knows that feeling all too well. Long before global premieres and international shoots became routine, he often found himself feeling tense while crossing immigration counters abroad, sometimes for reasons he couldn’t fully explain.
Emraan Hashmi recently spoke about these experiences during the trailer launch of his upcoming web series Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web in Mumbai. Adding an ironic twist to the conversation, the actor now plays a customs officer in the show, a role that mirrors the authority figures who once made his own travels unexpectedly stressful.
Looking back, Emraan Hashmi shared that although immigration officials were usually polite, the anxiety around those checkpoints always stayed with him. He described it as an instinctive fear rather than something based on logic. Just like how spotting a traffic police officer can make someone nervous even when they’ve done nothing wrong, walking through airport security can suddenly make a person feel guilty without reason. According to him, even passing through the green channel with nothing more than clothes in your bag can oddly feel like carrying something forbidden.
Emraan Hashmi then reflected on his early international trips in the early 2000s when he was travelling alone more often. During that time, he recalls being frequently pulled aside at immigration. He believes his appearance back then, including wearing earrings, may have unintentionally drawn attention and led to profiling. While he isn’t certain what exactly raised suspicion, he admits he may have unknowingly matched a certain stereotype of the time.
Over the years, however, those experiences have faded. Emraan Hashmi noted that things are very different now. Travelling with his family no longer attracts the same level of scrutiny and airport checks have become far less intimidating than they once were.
On the work front, Emraan Hashmi was last seen in Suparn Varma’s courtroom drama Haq, inspired by the life and legal struggle of Shah Bano Begum.
He now returns to the spotlight with Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web, a crime thriller exploring the shadowy world of smuggling and customs enforcement. The series also features Sharad Kelkar, Zoya Afroz and Nandish Singh Sandhu. Created by Neeraj Pandey, the show is set to premiere on Netflix on January 14, bringing Emraan Hashmi’s real-life airport memories full circle on screen.
