By Sharanya Gopinathan
Hashmi and his co-writer, Bilal Siddiqi, sat down with Millee Aishwarya, editor-in-chief of Penguin Random House India, to talk about his book, Kiss of Life. The book is about Hashmi’s experience dealing with his son Ayaan’s cancer diagnosis and treatment in 2014.
During the session, Hashmi spoke about how he used to pretend to be Batman to convince Ayaan to go to the doctor and take his medicine. Ayaan, who turned seven recently, was told that the lengthy treatment was part of the process of becoming a superhero, Ayaan-man. In an exclusive interview with The Ladies Finger the previous day, Hashmi had told us that Ayaan still hadn’t figured out who Batman really is. “The Batman ploy is a lot like Santa Claus, when he’s around eight, he’ll probably figure out that Batman isn’t real and superheroes are just made up, and we’ll have some explaining to do then.”
Hashmi also spoke about settling on the title: He said that writing the book itself was faster and easier than figuring out the title. After Superhero Kid and Don That Cape were both rejected by Millee, who told him that the title would just come to him in time, Kiss of Life popped into his head one day when he was making an omelette (he’s a terrible cook and it was his first time making an omelette). He knew that since it had that four letter word, it would be approved, and it was, immediately. He also said that his reputation for kissing in his movies would haunt him for the rest of his life, and he wouldn’t be able to get rid of it even at the grave.
Hashmi also spoke at length and with visible passion about the importance of getting screened for cancer, adopting a healthy lifestyle, and educating yourself about the disease. Pointing out that cancer has touched almost every household, he spoke of environmental and genetic factors that cause cancer, and the things you can do to prevent it. When talking about how he had cut out junk food completely from his life, he smiled and pointed out the irony of saying it while sitting outside a KFC.
Siddiqi, who sat beside Hashmi, constantly brushing his hair out of his eyes, said that he was initially apprehensive about co-writing the book, since his previous work was a fictional thriller. He said that while it was challenging to get into Hashmi’s head and write a first person narrative, Hashmi was surprisingly easy to work with, and very hands on. “He probably wrote more than any celebrity does in their autobiographies,” he added.
The conversation was followed by a quick rapid fire, where Hashmi told us his favorite cuisine (Indian, Thai, Japanese and loves pizza), his favorite genre of movies (romance-thriller, like his own movies) and his favorite Bhat (Mahesh).