I AM A COMMERCIAL CINEMA PERSON: JOHN
High on the success of his last two films, actor John Abraham says he has been too caught up with work to celebrate; adds he loves doing ‘difficult’ movies
Right from the beginning of his career, actor John Abraham has had a tryst with ‘challenging’ roles in films such as Water (2005), No Smoking (2007) and Madras Café (2013). And even 15 years after his debut, the actor seems to be high on tough films. The actor is currently busy shooting for RAW, following the release of Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran and Satyameva Jayate (SJ), and he will later begin filming Batla House with film-maker Nikkhil Advani.
Does John plan to restrict himself to “difficult” films from now on? The actor says, “It surely looks like that (laughs). I think I like taking up so-called difficult films, because I know that no one else will do them. Sometimes, I feel such films gravitate towards me and vice versa. I get excited when there’s a film and someone tells me, ‘Hey, it looks tough and challenging. How are you going to do it?’.”
John is currently riding high on the success of SJ. “I am an absolute commercial [cinema] person and I love that at its best. With SJ, I hope we gave the audiences a great ‘commercial cinema’ experience.” The Welcome Back (2015) star feels he is fortunate vis-à-vis RAW and Batla House. “They are probably two of the best scripts I have ever heard. They just gravitated towards me. So, sometimes, what seems [to have happened] by design may have worked out by default. I think I’ve been very lucky with such things as well,” he says.
John has no qualms in admitting that he has other films and scripts in store that will “blow people’s minds”. He says, “People are going to be like, ‘How did you decide to do something like this?’ So, now, we are trying and do everything that seems impossible,” says the actor.
Of late, John has been extremely busy, to the extent that he couldn’t find time to celebrate the success of his last two films. “The day SJ released, I went back to shoot for RAW, so I have had no time to sit, ponder, wonder or celebrate. I still have almost a month of shooting to do for RAW, so there is a lot of that film left. We finish shooting sometime in the middle of September,” he says.
In his recent films, the actor has been working with relatively newer directors, including writer Milap Milan Zaveri, who directed him in SJ. “I think Milap came into this film with a lot of fire in his belly. Honestly, I think the best compliment he got from me and Manoj (Bajpayee; SJ co-star ) was when we went on record saying that although many may feel that technically, he is a better writer than a director, but with SJ, he has proved that he is a better director in this film than a writer. He has done a fantastic job and people will take him very seriously after this,” he says.
I think I like taking up socalled difficult films, because I know that no one else will do them. Sometimes, I feel such films gravitate towards me and vice versa. JOHN ABRAHAM, ACTOR