Emraan Hashmi recalls waiting hours, says he still owes apology
Emraan hopes to meet Aishwarya someday and personally apologise if his remark hurt her.
Emraan said he regrets calling Aishwarya Rai Bachchan “plastic” on Koffee With Karan.
The remark was made during the rapid-fire round in 2014.
He said he has never met Aishwarya or spoken to her properly.
Emraan recalled waiting outside her vanity van for nearly three hours after watching Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.
He said he would like to meet her and apologise if the comment hurt her.
Fans are seeing his response as a rare moment of accountability rather than self-defense.
Emraan Hashmi has finally said out loud what many people expected from him for years: he regrets calling Aishwarya Rai Bachchan “plastic” on Koffee With Karan. The actor’s latest remarks have reopened an old controversy, but this time the tone is very different — softer, more reflective and noticeably apologetic.
The comment goes back to 2014, when Emraan appeared on Karan Johar’s chat show and made the remark during the rapid-fire round. It was one of those television moments that spread quickly, stuck for a long time and never really lost its awkwardness. For years, it remained one of the most discussed lines from that episode, not because it was clever, but because it landed badly and followed him far beyond the show.
What stands out now is not just that Emraan admitted regret, but how plainly he did it. In a recent conversation with Saurabh Dwivedi, he did not try to dress up the moment or suggest it was harmless banter. He said he does regret it. That matters because public apologies in entertainment are often carefully worded, half-hearted or buried under excuses. In this case, he seemed to accept the weight of the remark without trying to dodge it.
He also said something else that gives the story a more human edge: he has never actually met Aishwarya Rai Bachchan or had a proper conversation with her. That detail changes the tone of the incident a little. It suggests that the relationship between the two was never personal in the first place, which makes the original comment look even more careless in hindsight. A joke made on television can look small in the moment, but once it escapes into public life, it can become part of someone’s image for years.
Emraan also recalled that he had once been an enormous admirer of Aishwarya. He said that after watching Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, he waited for nearly three hours outside her vanity van just to catch a glimpse of her. That memory makes his regret feel less like a formal correction and more like a personal realization. The same actor who once idolized her later said something dismissive about her, and now seems to understand the contradiction.
When asked whether he would like to meet her now, Emraan said he would love to do so and apologise directly if the comment had hurt her. He even said he would want to ask whether she had been offended and tell her he was sorry if she had felt bad. That response is what has made this interview resonate with many viewers. He did not hide behind the excuse of a chat-show format, nor did he suggest the comment should be forgotten because it was years ago.
Instead, he treated it like a mistake that still deserves acknowledgement. That is not always common in celebrity culture, where public apologies are often carefully managed to protect image rather than express genuine remorse. Emraan’s answer has been widely read as an example of accountability because he did not frame himself as a victim of the format. He simply accepted that the line was wrong and that time does not automatically erase its impact.
For many fans, this also highlights how celebrity memory works. A single remark can follow a public figure for a decade, resurfacing whenever the person is discussed. Even if the speaker has moved on, the audience may not have. That is why a direct apology can matter so much: it doesn’t erase the past, but it shows an understanding that words on television can leave a lasting mark.
There is also something unexpectedly disarming about the way Emraan spoke about admiring Aishwarya in the past. It makes the whole episode feel less like a feud and more like a regrettable lapse in judgment. He was not speaking about a rival or someone he barely knew; he was speaking about a star he once admired deeply. That only makes the careless remark more awkward, but it also makes the regret seem more sincere.
In the end, the interview worked because it gave people a version of Emraan that was unguarded and honest. He did not try to win the moment. He tried to own it. And in a world where many celebrities prefer silence or spin, that straightforwardness has given the old controversy a very different ending.