Mumbai, Aug. 11 -- Long before the anti-hero became one of Bollywood's favourite character templates, Emraan Hashmi was quietly making audiences root for men who were flawed, dangerous, obsessive and often far from conventional heroes. His characters were not always easy to like, but they were almost impossible to ignore.

From Murder and Jannat to Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai and Awarapan, Emraan built an image around characters who lived in the grey. There was aggression, desire, guilt and heartbreak, often existing within the same character. What made these roles work was not just the intensity he brought to them, but the vulnerability underneath it.

Shivam Pandit in Awarapan remains perhaps the clearest example. He was a gangster, a k...