2012, Hashmi appeared in Kunal Deshmukh's crime thriller Jannat 2 with Randeep Hooda and Esha Gupta. It was initially titled "Informer", but was later changed to the current title, making it a follow-up film to Jannat (2008). The film generated mixed reviews from critics, though it was a success at the box office. He then starred alongside Abhay Deol, Prosenjit Chatterjee and Kalki Koechlin in Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai, an adaptation of writer Vassilis Vassilikos's novel Z and the 1969 French film of the same name. Set in a fictional town called Bharat Nagar, the political thriller traced corruption in India. The film opened to critical acclaim, and Hashmi received unanimous praise for his portrayal of Joginder Parmar, a videographer who sometimes shoots porn films. Madhureeta Mukherjee of The Times of India wrote that Hashmi "looks the part and pulls off an act he should be proud of." Raja Sen described it as one of his best performances and wrote: "Emraan Hashmi, delivers a knockout punch as he masters a complicated role" and called it as "the year's finest, bravest and most consistent performance." He received his second Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 58th Filmfare Awards for his performance. Hashmi's next appearance was for Vikram Bhatt's supernatural horror Raaz 3D, alongside Bipasha Basu and Esha Gupta. Though a commercial success, the film and his performance received mostly negative reviews; critic Kunal Guha commented: "[Hashmi] takes his role as seriously as he could but his efforts couldn't exorcise the devilishly terrible plot from spelling doom for this film." Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "The swarthy Hashmi [...] does a forgettable job. His final film of the year was Shamin Desai's delayed thriller Rush, which failed at the box office. 2013–present: Commercial setbacks and further projects In 2013, Hashmi was first seen in Ekta Kapoor and Vishal Bhardwaj's supernatural thriller Ek Thi Daayan, alongside Konkona Sen Sharma, Huma Qureshi and Kalki Koechlin. Critical opinion on the film was mostly positive, and Hashmi's performance also drew appreciation. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV mentioned that Hashmi "gives the character of the haunted magician just that – a haunted feel that is just apt," whilst Shubhra Gupta called his performance "consistent", adding that he "is a performer who keeps getting better". Hashmi's second appearance was for Raj Kumar Gupta's comic-thriller Ghanchakkar, opposite Vidya Balan. Critics were divided in their judgment of the film, as