three films. He first starred in the comedy Good Boy Bad Boy alongside Tusshar Kapoor, Isha Sharvani and Tanushree Dutta. The film flopped at the box office and received unfavourable reviews. He then featured opposite Mrinalini Sharma and Shriya Saran in Mohit Suri's romantic thriller Awarapan. Hashmi was cast as the protagonist Shivam, a gangster with a tragic past. Writing for the Hindustan Times, critic Khalid Mohamed described it as "intense and believable". Subhash K Jha wrote: "... Emraan Hashmi [is] an actor who conceals more than he reveals on screen. There is an inherent pain in his personality that this film taps better than anything he has done earlier. This film marks the emergence of a major talent." His final release of the year was the thriller The Train, which also underperformed. Only Awarapan was both a commercial and critical success becoming the best film of his career. 2008–2012: Commercial success and stardom His only film in 2008 was Kunal Deshmukh's Jannat, a love story set against the backdrop of match fixing. Co-starring alongside Sonal Chauhan, Javed Sheikh and Sameer Kochhar, Hashmi was cast as Arjun Dixit, a bookmaker. His performance was appreciated by critics; Taran Adarsh commented that "[t]he actor displays the gamut of emotions with aplomb, he changes expressions like a chameleon changes colors. Jannat is yet another turning point in his career." The film emerged as a commercial success in India, with revenues of over . In 2009, Hashmi appeared in Mohit Suri's supernatural horror Raaz – The Mystery Continues, alongside Kangana Ranaut and Adhyayan Suman. The film's domestic collection exceeded , and emerged as a success. Hashmi's portrayal of a painter attracted favourable reviews; The Times of India'''s Nikhat Kazmi wrote: "Emraan Hashmi is fast emerging as the Colin Farrell of Indian cinema: completely mercurial, eclectic and unpredictable. As the brooding, prescient painter, who paints death on his canvas and falls in love with one of subjects, he is suitably aggrieved, desperate and afraid." He then starred opposite Soha Ali Khan in Kunal Deshmukh's Tum Mile, a love story set against the backdrop of the 2005 Maharashtra floods. The film performed poorly at the box office. The following year, Hashmi featured in Milan Luthria's period action-drama Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai with an ensemble cast including Ajay Devgan, Randeep Hooda, Kangana Ranaut and Prachi Desai. The picture, which depicted the rise of organised crime