20 Years Of Murder: When Emraan Hashmi shared his experience of shooting ‘Bheege Honth Tere’ with Mallika Sherawat: “Entire city block came to a halt as they watched us shoot. I’m sure they would have been amused watching two entangled bodies under a sheet…”

By Fenil Seta -

April 2, 2024 - 2:00 PM IST

One of the most significant films of Bollywood, Murder (2004), completed 20 years on April 2. It is considered a landmark film as it normalized kissing and intimacy on screen. The impact was so profound that within a year of its release, films featuring prominent stars kissing on screen began to be released. At the box office, Murder was a super hit, thanks to its chartbuster music and the bold scenes featuring Emraan Hashmi and Mallika Sherawat. Emraan later featured in many intimate scenes in other films, and he soon came to be known as ‘Serial Kisser’. As Murder celebrates its 20th anniversary, we bring to you an interesting anecdote shared by Emraan on Murder’s 12th anniversary, in 2016.

20 Years Of Murder: When Emraan Hashmi shared his experience of shooting ‘Bheege Honth Tere’ with Mallika Sherawat: “Entire city block came to a halt as they watched us shoot. I’m sure they would have been amused watching two entangled bodies under a sheet…”

Emraan Hashmi, in a conversation with Bombay Times, spoke about his experience of shooting the much-loved song 'Bheege Honth Tere', which shows the actor and Mallika Sherawat making love in different parts of Bangkok, Thailand. He narrated how for a particular scene, the whole locality came to a standstill.

Emraan Hashmi said, “I remember shooting my first bold song from Murder, 'Bheege Honth Tere', in Bangkok. It was set in several locations, but one of them was particularly amusing. Mallika Sherawat and I were shooting on the top of a parapet of a seven-storey building. After having exhausted every variation and situation that led to the numerous kisses in the song, Anurag Basu wanted us to make out on the ledge of that building! I kept teasing him about how he was making us play out his fantasies on celluloid.”

Emraan continued, “So at sundown when the shooting lights came on, the entire city block came to a halt on the street as they watched us shoot! I'm sure they would have been amused watching two entangled bodies under a sheet snogging away for the camera.”

Emraan Hashmi, in the same interview, said that he doesn’t enjoy shooting erotic scenes, “It's one thing to do it in the confines of your room with your own partner, but quite another to be playing it out on a set in front of a whole crew scrutinizing your every move and a director who gives you instructions on how to go about it. If anyone thinks it's their dream job, they're sadly mistaken. The sexy kiss on screen seems like the unsexiest thing off-screen.”

Emraan raised laughs as he stated, “Most of the time there are awkward teeth clanking with the director yelling, 'Show your face, Emi. Your face is getting covered by your hair.' And the most irritating one, 'Guys, your make-up is all over the sheets. We will have to change them. Let's break for lunch.'”

He signed off by exulting, “And like it or not, after more than a hundred and fifty kisses (I've lost count) …it's not easy to dethrone me as the Kissing King or Chumban Devta as a crowd that had gathered for one of my film shoots in Delhi started shouting. Spider-Man says it best: It is my gift, and it is my curse.”

Also Read: 20 Years of Murder EXCLUSIVE: “Mallika Sherawat was one of the first few to learn how to play the (PR game). If we were smarter, we would have also done something similar” – Ashmit Patel