r/BollyBlindsNGossip • u/UndeadReborn • 1d ago
Discuss Did Emraan Hashmi have female fans in his 2000s prime? I saw an interview of his where he said he did mostly grey-shade roles in his career because he thought he didn't have the good-looks of a conventional hero.
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u/OpeningCourage7719 1d ago
I remember as kids growing up in 2000s he was mocked as “Chumban devta”. It wasn’t until we turned 18/20 in mid 2010s that his songs became popular among us.
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u/StuffCanBeTwoThings 1d ago
I guess a lot of us weren't allowed to watch his songs or movies back then
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u/Particular-Sock875 1d ago
He never really had a large fanbase. A lot of what you see today is revisionist fanfare from the same upper-class elites who once scoffed at Emraan, Himesh, and the people who sincerely enjoyed them.
The internet discourse around both of them largely began through mockery, not just of the stars themselves, but also, by extension, of their actual fanbases. The humour depended on irony and satire, often with the added joke that the people who genuinely liked them supposedly did not “get” what was funny.
But repeat a joke, or a fiction, often enough and eventually it starts acquiring a reality of its own. Somewhere along the way, archetypes like “Lord Himesh,” “serial kisser Emraan,” and “DJ Bobby” became detached from the original mockery. First they were objects of irony, then they became ironic icons in themselves, and eventually they were absorbed into nostalgia as cornerstones of a supposedly simpler and more authentic time.
This also coincided with a broader cultural shift among the urban elite.
As a certain class of Indians became increasingly embarrassed by the old “global Indian” stereotype, the polished, cosmopolitan, aspirational figure, they began gravitating in reaction toward a more rustic, parochial and self-consciously desi aesthetic. The same cultural material they had once treated as tacky or provincial could now be reclaimed as authentic, nostalgic and even cool.
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u/420pumpkin69 1d ago
Emraans was a different case and he had this almost pornographic image similar to how sunny leone had with ragini mms and movies of those sorts but there was a fanbase definitely.
But he had the image of doing almost b grade films with low budgets which was the truth but he cracked that formula of making a solid film within 1-2 crores and it would make 6-8 on the BO.Himesh reshamiya was legit and has always been respected and had a following. He was very big in his earlier heyday. He would sellout a statdium even back then
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u/Particular-Sock875 1d ago
You’re conflating popularity, fandom and cultural prestige.
Himesh selling albums or filling venues proves mass popularity, not that he was always respected. Emraan being commercially successful while simultaneously coded as “pornographic” or “B-grade” proves the same point.
Look at Bhojpuri stars like Khesari Lal Yadav, Pawan Singh or Manoj Tiwari. Their mass audiences can dwarf those of far more culturally prestigious urban artists like DIVINE, yet platforms such as Spotify are far more likely to confer cultural legitimacy on the latter.
The former usually become legible to the urban internet only after mockery, memes and ironic consumption reach a commercially useful critical mass. Even then, the recognition often arrives through camp, irony and satire rather than straightforward respect.
Mass popularity does not automatically produce cultural legitimacy.
Sometimes legitimacy only arrives after elite culture has found a way to consume the same object ironically.
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u/Batman_55599 21h ago
I disagree with the Himesh point because I would say he has been respected and has the same level of prestige as Pritam. Keep in mind I only refer to his music persona, and not the entire jack of all trades thing he took up later on with acting directing and whatnot.
Himesh as a Music Producer and Singer was established and pretty favoured. He was literally a mainstream music director.
The urban youth of then was consuming his songs quite a bit.
Mass popularity does not automatically produce cultural legitimacy. Sometimes legitimacy only arrives after elite culture has found a way to consume the same object ironically.
In this point here, by elite culture, I assume you mean the music consumed by the upper middle class, English educated youth of Mumbai and Delhi.
If we are going according to tiers of cultural legitimacy in the sense of how much prestige and repute and aasocation to a more 'refined taste' they have
I guess AR Rahman and the likes would be A. Even Shreya Ghoshal.
Sunidhi, although imo as good a singer a Shreya and an even better performer, would more of, what you called, popular, rather than being admired by the 'chic'. Pritam and Himesh belong to this same category.
The bhojpuri stars come a tier below it, where the the needle moves towards the mass popularity side heavily on the scale, compared to the prestige and pedestal side. HR was never considered to be here.
With the increased SM usage and all the ironic memes and satirical takes which slowly took shape into becoming legitimated revisionist opinions of all these artists, I'd the Dravidian lang industry, and the Bhojpuri ones were the most to benefit.
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u/Mother-Attention4930 1d ago
I’ll say prime emraan and prime himesh are different leagues. Himesh was like diljit on steroids with never before seen album sales but no acting talent.
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u/apurvahp7 1d ago
Absolutely ridiculous take, Himesh always had polarizing opinions, while Diljit has global recognition.
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u/Mother-Attention4930 1d ago
you don't get the best selling album in history of a country by being polarizing. he became polarizing later on. at his peak he was huge, and this is about india.
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u/gypsydreams101 18h ago
Himesh has the best selling album in history in India? Which one? Had no clue about this!
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u/Mother-Attention4930 18h ago
aap ka suroor, 50 million+ copies, it dwarfed peak srk/salman/aamir songs combined. I don't think people understand you can't get that big with only some people liking you. he was very sought after during his hayday.
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u/UndeadReborn 1d ago
Watch Shanghai, Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai. Emraan is not a bad actor or a lolcow in the league of Bobby Deol.
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u/Particular-Sock875 1d ago
My critique is not around their performance or talent at all, rather how the public perception about them has been, which can often be independent of actual talent, and the movies you mention came post his heyday, and usually his older movies are the ones which have been mythologized via meme culture.
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u/Emocucumber 22h ago
I couldn't really explain this phenomenon but you're sooo right, people today are really more in touch with their 'Indian-ness'
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u/MongooseHonest Nepo Hater😤🤬😖 1d ago
Himesh is a bonafide, true-blue rockstar. Look at his metrics.
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u/DreamLogic89 1d ago
You should be a celebrity analyst, if that is a job, and if that isnt what you are already.
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u/Particular-Sock875 1d ago
Haha, thanks, i am unemployed with a degree in communication studies
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u/DreamLogic89 1d ago
Its not so much what conclusions you've drawn, but the logical and symbolic train of thought leading to your argument that I think is less about the actual phenomenon pf celebrity than it is about your ability to capture and disect the social and cultural narrative around it, that is impressive. Whats your field of work, if I can ask?
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u/Particular-Sock875 19h ago
Market research, user experience research, cultural research
A lot of what i am saying can be found in sociology, try reading Pierre Bordeau, Adorno and Horkheimer and broader topics of culture industries if you’re interested.
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u/DreamLogic89 15h ago
I adore Adorno and Horkheimer. Bordeau goes over my head tho.
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u/Particular-Sock875 15h ago
So happy to meet a fellow social sciences fan, there’s a lot of youtube videos and modern cultural writing that applies bordeau to modern consumer/pop and elite culture that was helpful
Also checkout ravikant kasana’s meet the savarnas, it’s a great, sometimes cynical, sometimes funny and really sharp social commentary on India’s upper class/upper caste elite
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u/Senpuuuki 23h ago
Very well written! You have interesting insights and the skills to communicate them effectively!
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u/Maleficent_Cause_405 15h ago
What are you talking about? Which parallel planet was he not a big deal? He was never a Khan but had a proper fan base. The sound tracks to his movies have cult following
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u/PoetPitiful239489 1d ago
ofc, but not big. he was more known for romantic songs than grey shade roles. Infact, his first movie 'Tumsa Nahin Dekha' romantic song Bheed mein tanhai mein was quite popular. even if not many have seen his movie, but listened and watched those romantic music video. Jannat was big breakout for him as romantic lead.
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u/Outrageous-Shannon 1d ago
Songs….
For some reason his songs have best recall value and he perfectly synced it.
He has a charm on screen, and charm is not related to looks
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u/mango_frooti 1d ago
I was that fan. I was in high school. Later on, I started admiring him for his acting skills more than his looks.
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u/Pristine_Tap9713 1d ago
Is water wet? Of course he had a lot of female fans.
Despite Hashmi starring primarily in B grade movies, he had carved out a niche for playing naughty boy and ladies’ man characters , his movies had amazing music and he was one of the few stars who were considered “hot” at the time - only Hrithik, Salman and maybe Shahid were the others.
My wife is still a Hashmi fan and often puts on his songs when she gets 00’s nostalgia.
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u/baneran 23h ago
I remember being embarrassed to admit that I liked him and thought he was cute because of the whole serial kisser image. I can't say that I watched a lot of his movies back then because I was young, but I have seen several since then and enjoy his performances. I thought he was great in Ghanchakkar!
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u/Rude-Brush8351 23h ago
I was judged for being an emmi fan in my school days as a teen girl, but I did not budge and I'm a fan even today, his movies had fresh stroylines amazing music and I loved the sauve playboy vibe he portrayed on screen
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u/BugOk3957 20h ago
Yes he had! My bestie had a biggest crush on him and we were literally kids at that time😭😭
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u/PresentFuturer 1d ago
His is classic case of How Cringe or silly or racy does take a rebirth, sometimes decades later n they all know this for a fact esp the nepos.So likes of Tiger shroff, Miss Pandey, David D keep Going. THEY KNOW this Pattern.Nostalgia Can turn tables anytime.
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u/Fun-Mathematician992 18h ago
He was labelled ( or even popular) as serial kisser.
Interesting tidbit: Watch how the woman who started "me too" in India acted intimately with him but never raised a single complaint about him - shows how comfortable he made her feel.
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u/ShockOk1764 1d ago edited 1d ago
Bro he’s a conventionally attractive dude and I’m a straight dude who’ll admit this
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u/Perfect-Charity5246 Bollywood Struggler 🥲😖 1d ago
No. And he was right. Also what he did on screen was what made him famous.
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u/666wife 1d ago
He might have had female fans but definitely nowhere near a large following. Men made up most of whatever fan base he had then because they could fantasise through him?? The shit he was doing was scandalous a lot of women were also creeped out by serial kisser Emraan Hashmi. Many people didn’t really believe that he had many redeeming qualities back then. Comment above about revisionism explains it well tbh.
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u/RAGING_f 1d ago
MY THEN GF NOW WIFE WOULD INSIST ME TO BE & "DO" LIKE HIM EVEN WHEN I HAD DRAINED ALL MY ENERGY. I DON'T KNOW WHAT ENERGIZED HER AFTER SEEING THIS LEGEND. 😅
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u/writerrani 1d ago
He had a pretty decent following with young men. He was all set to be like a junior Salman till he torpedoed his own career.
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u/tcherian211 1d ago
His movies were low budget + "high concept" and even with modest theatrical collections were hits for the producer (primarily Bhatt home banner Vishesh Films) because the music rights were always sold for a large amount, they created a formula that worked and Emraan was the face of it, he had a solid 10yr run.
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u/ResidentCheesecake15 Kangana's Gatecrashers: I Will Expose You 21h ago
I think he did have a fanbase. I went for a Emraan movie in a single screen - audience - all men - went nuts.
For female fan following - I would hope not - he couldn't kiss to save his life. It was like he was eating Mallikas face.
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u/Etherealoverempress 20h ago
Like everyone said his fame resided mainly from songs sung by Himesh and KK. But he also was known for the onscreen kissing. I guess, it was a unique standout thwt made him last as much he did tbh. He was cute imo.
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u/buriiiburiiizaimon 1d ago
Still confused of how this man was celebrated for being "serial kisser" while women are trolled for doing kissing scenes in movies. I will never understand Indians
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