Are the Serial Kisser's Thrillers Loved?

Emraan Hashmi's Mumbai Saga was the last movie release before pandemic struck in its second wave.

Now, the actor returns to the big screen with Chehre.

Directed by Rumy Jafry, the thriller pits Emraan opposite Amitabh Bachchan.

Emraan has done quite a few thrillers in his career.

Audiences have loved the Serial Kisser, but have they loved his thrillers too?

Joginder Tuteja takes a look.

 

Raaz: The Mystery Continues
Box office collection: Rs 25 crore
Raaz 3
Box office collection: Rs 73 crore
Raaz: Reboot
Box office collection: Rs 30.21 crore

Raaz is easily the biggest franchise of Emraan's career.

While the first Raaz starred Dino Morea, Emraan took over from the second installment, right up to the fourth.

The first -- with Kangana Ranaut -- was a hit.

The second -- with Bipasha Basu and Esha Gupta -- did even better.

But the fourth film -- which marked Kriti Kharbanda's Bollywood debut -- was a flop.

 

Murder
Box office collection: Rs 15 crore
Murder 2
Box office collection: Rs 48 crore

Another thriller franchise featuring Emraan that was a good success.

Murder, in fact, put him in the spotlight after his debut film, Footpath, failed.

Murder 2 was a big success too, with Jacqueline Fernandez and Prashant Narayanan in principle roles.

Randeep Hooda led the show in Murder 3, but the film's failure ended the franchise.

 

Ek Thi Daayan
Box office collection: Rs 35 crore

His last decent success, Emraan had as many as three leading ladies in Ek Thi Daayan -- Konkona Sen Sharma, Huma Qureshi and Kalki Koechelin.

The Ekta Kapoor production turned out to be a fair show at the box office.

The song Yaaram was a chartbuster.

 

Aksar
Box office collection: Rs 8.58 crore

Think Aksar and you are instantly reminded of the hit song Jhalak Dikhla Ja. That's the power of this Himesh Reshammiya song!

Directed by Ananth Mahadevan, Aksar was appreciated by its target audience as they nodded in approval when Emraan wooed Udita Goswami right under her screen husband Dino Morea's npse.

Chocolate: Deep Dark Secrets
Box office collection: Rs 7 crore

One of Bollywood's most under-rated thrillers, Chocolate: Deep Dark Secrets was inspired by The Usual Suspects and brought in elements of its own.

A rare multi-starrer that Emraan has acted in (the other being Ungli), he shared screen space with Anil Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Irrfan Khan and Arshad Warsi.

In line with the kind of movies he was doing in those days, Chocolate had Emraan playing a flirtatious young man too.

 

The Train
Box office collection: Rs 5.11 crore

A remake of the Hollywood film Derailed, The Train showed Emraan as a hunter until it was revealed that he was the one being hunted.

A good movie by Hasnain Hyderabadwala and Raksha Mistry, this one co-starred Geeta Basra in her second screen outing after Dil Diya Hai (again with Emraan).

The music was quite popular, but audiences did not make a beeline for the film.

 

The Killer
Box office collection: Rs 5 crore

Emraan made quite a few films with the director duo Hasnain Hyderabadwala and Raksha Mistry.

The Killer was a remake of the Hollywood film Collateral.

Starring Emraan and Irrfan Khan, along with Ram Gopal Varma's discovery Priyanka Kothari, this thrill-on-the-road film was about finding a killer and had some moments that did work.

Unfortunately, it did not find takers at the box office.

 

The Body
Box office collection: Rs 3.44 crore

The Body was a remake of a Spanish film of the same name.

Directed by Drishyam fame Jeethu Joseph, the film saw a fractured release with hardly any promotion and disappeared without a trace.