Starmark and Penguin Books, YFLO organised an evening with Emraan Hashmi to celebrate the launch of his book The Kiss of Life

Through the conversation with  Emraan Hashmi and Bilal Siddiqi, emerged the picture of a father battling the trauma of seeing his son fight cancer, and how Bilal helped him open up and share his life-changing experiences.

Picked out from the life of popular actor Emraan Hashmi, The Kiss Of Life is an autobiographical account of being shaken up in life when career and family was all going on well. It begins around the time Hashmi's acting career, after a long struggle, had stabilised and was on a high, and when his four year old son Ayaan is taken ill..

The harsh world of Bollywood is unsparing for lost opportunities. Only acting skills backed by a lot of hard work had made the actor chalk out a successful acting career. And this is when a regular diagnostic scan on the young boy shattered Hashmi and his wife Praveen. The doctors identified  a tennis ball- sized malignant tumour which had invaded Ayaan's kidney.

The book's chapters constantly shuttle between the past and the present. On one account the story records the trails and trials of Hashmi’s rise as an actor, and the second , running in parallel chapters, reveals a caring father’s love for a child battling cancer.

The ups and downs at the beginning of his career, his doubts about being a successful actor, battling against the typecast of being a 'serial kisser', presented alongside Hashmi’s constant worry and trauma of his child  being given a chemotherapy, provides a bold and brave contrast to the story line.

More than the actor, the book reveals the real Emraan Hashmi. Away from all lights, camera, action scenes, he is just a caring father whose life was shattered when his son was diagnosed with cancer and who left no leaf unturned to get back his son.

Published by Penguin, The Kiss Of Life, is an honest and a personal account of a father. The book is priced at Rs 399.

Famous Bollywood actor, Emraan Hashmi’s film Murder made him one of the most sought-after actors in Bollywood and bestowed him with the title of a ‘serial kisser’. Bilal Siddiqui, co-author of this book, is a 21 year old man working as a screenplay writer with Red Chillies Entertainment. Siddiqi has earlier written a novel 'The Bard of Blood', which is set in Balochistan. He paired up with Hashmi to recount an authentic journey through stardom and a doting father's traumatic experience of caring for a cancer-stricken son.