Emraan Hashmi initially worked as an assistant-director for the horror-film ‘Raaz’ (2002), before making his acting debut in the crime-thriller ‘Footpath’ (2003).
Box-office hit erotic-thriller ‘Murder’ (2004) earned Hashmi praise for his portrayal of an obsessive lover. He followed the not-so-successful romantic-film ‘Tumsa Nahi Dekha’ (2004) with a supporting role in the action-thriller ‘Kalyug’ (2005).
While the drama-thriller ‘Aksar’ (2006) wasn’t received favorably, Hashmi’s role as ‘undercover detective Aakash’ in the commercially hit romantic-thriller ‘Gangster’ (2006) fetched him a Filmfare nomination for ‘Best performance in Negative Role.’
During 2006-2007, Hashmi starred in the action-thriller ‘The Killer,’ the adult-drama ‘Jawani Diwani,’ the drama-thriller ‘Dil Diya Hai,’ the comedy ‘Good Boy Bad Boy,’ and the thriller ‘The Train,’ but all these films were box-office disappointments.
Hashmi’s role as ‘gangster Shivam’ with a painful past, in the neo-noir action-film ‘Awarapan’ (2007), is considered as one of his best performances.  He played ‘bookie Arjun’ in the successful romantic crime-film ‘Jannat’ (2008), followed by another hit, supernatural-horror ‘Raaz 2: The Mystery continues’ (2009).
After the flop romantic-disaster film ‘Tum Mile’ (2009), the action-drama-gangster film ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbai’ (2010), with ensemble cast, was critically and commercially successful, fetching Hashmi nomination for ‘Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award.’ Â
Though the action-thriller ‘Crook’ (2010) and the romantic-comedy ‘Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji’ (2011) were unsuccessful, the psychological-thriller ‘Murder-2’ (2011) fared well at box-office. Hashmi’s performance in the mega-hit biopic-drama film ‘The Dirty Picture’ (2011) received mixed reviews.
Following the successful crime-thriller ‘Jannat 2’ (2012), Hashmi starred as a videographer in the political-thriller ‘Shanghai’ (2012) earning second nomination for ‘Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.’ Thereafter, most of his films, including the horror-thriller ‘Raaz 3D’ (2012), the supernatural-thriller ‘Ek Thi Dayayan’ (2013), the black-comedy ‘Ghanchakkar’ (2013), the thriller ‘Ungli’ (2014), and ‘Baadshaho’ (2017) did average box-office business.
Hashmi played former Indian cricket-captain Mohammad Azharuddin in his biopic ‘Azar’ (2016). In 2021, he starred in the crime-thriller ‘Mumbai Saga’ and the mystery-thriller ‘Chehre’ alongside Amitabh Bachchan.