Emran Hashmi gets mobbed by fans while shooting in Latur and Baramati

This must have made Emran Hashmi's day. Shooting on the streets of Latur and Baramati has been hellish for director Dibakar Banerjee thanks to the popularity his film's hero enjoys in these towns.

The action-oriented street scenes that were being filmed involved chase sequences between Hashmi and Abhay Deol, who is also part of Banerjee's Shanghai that will be released by the year end.

Each time filming started, crowds would swell, and shooting would become impossible, says a source.

In fact, we hear the Love, Sex aur Dhoka director had to call off shooting on four occasions thanks to Hashmi's uncontrollable fans.

During one such incident, a scene was being filmed with Hashmi in an auto-rickshaw on a congested street. The crowd went berserk and demanded a darshan of the star.

As the mob swelled, all hell broke lose. The crowd got restless and shooting had to be halted.

"It wasn't easy. We hadn't anticipated this massive a fan-following in these towns. They went on a rampage when they didn't get to see Hashmi.

Ironically, all along, Emran was often sitting right in the middle of the road in full public view. But they couldn't recognise him."

Shuddering at the memory of what could have been an ugly situation, Banerjee said, "This wasn't the first time that Emran's fans got restless. They couldn't recognise him in his ordinary get up.

You see, both, Abhay and Emran play working-class characters. Stars, to people in Baramati, are larger-than-life figures. How was I to tell them I am not that kind of filmmaker?"

In contrast, Banerjee's blue-eyed boy Deol went largely unrecognised. Deol took that sportingly, we hear.