He is known as the "serial kisser" of Bollywood. Emraan Hashmi, who is not bashful about his onscreen reputation, quite sees the lighter side of being cast opposite a witch in Ek Thi Daayan. "This was the only thing left for me to romance- a 'daayan'. This film fulfilled that also. Now all that is left is to romance mid-air," says Hashmi, one of the most consistently successful lead actors in Bollywood. Critics agree that Emraan has matured as an actor with each film- and he himself describes his latest role as the "most interesting" to date.

Hashmi plays a magician in the upcoming Ek Thi Daayan, directed by Kannan Iyer and co-produced by Vishal Bhardwaj and Ekta Kapoor. "He is a flawed character, someone people can relate to. There is a dark side, but there is a fun side to him too," says Hashmi, whose serial kisser reputation was made largely in the 2004 Anurag Basu romantic thriller Murder with Mallika Sherawat.

"When you catch the character in the film, he is obviously going through a particular haunting with the witch. I think it is one of the best, most interesting characters I have played," he adds. Ek Thi Daayan is based on the short story by Mukul Sharma, whose daughter Konkona Sen plays one of the female leads along with Kalki Koechlin and Huma Qureshi in the thriller. The film is slated for an April 18 release and it is left for the audience to figure out which of these three is the witch.