Page 54 - Final june 2018 converted and proofed for flipbook

John abraham:

i am a middle class man

leading a simple life

ctor John Abraham, who
started off as a model before
Aventuring into the Hindi film
industry, said he is a middle class
person and believes in leading a
simple and frugal life.
“I am not a narcissistic person
by nature, I don’t like going out
looking for attention. I don’t have
a bodyguard, I have a simple life, I
don’t wear a watch, I have a basic
car. I am a middle class person and
I will not lose that. I live my life on my
own terms, I am frugal in my lifestyle,”
John told .
Being in the filmdom for about 15
years, John says he believes in
staying true to his roots.
“It beats me when in south India you
are called megastar or superstar.
Vanity to another level scares me. I
connect to audience (with a thought) “The only fictional character is that of mine... that is the only creative
that I am not like a star to them. I don’t liberty. We have dedicated the film to the heroes of this country from
want to become a star to them, I want
to be John Abraham the person.” Army-men to scientists,” he said.
He said he is “very secure as a person and as an actor” and is well aware of how much The 45-year-old actor was aware about this chapter of Indian history
and the aim is to show this moment of pride and honour onscreen.
a film starring him would do business as compared to other actors. “When I made ‘Madras Cafe’, people thought I made a Congress
For every ‘Garam Masala’ or a ‘Housefull’, the actor says he has also featured in content-
driven movies like ‘Madras Cafe’ or a ‘Water’. film, with ‘Parmanu’ I don’t want people to say I made a BJP film. I
am a filmmaker and making a film to entertain people.
“I have done every kind of film. The subtlety in my performance is lauded today more than “Our film is not anti-Pakistan or anti-China or anti-America...it is a
it was earlier. Those days it was about being over expressive, garish, loud as that was
considered as good acting. Times have changed, subtlety in performance is important pro-India film. We are not here to bash anyone. We are here to
and that comes across in most of my work,” he said. show the greatness of our nation,” John said.
The actor said there was”too much technical information” but they
John’s next release is ‘Parmanu: The managed to break that make it palatable for the audience.
Story of Pokhran’ , based on India’s
nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1998 during “The challenge was to simplify it and the other was to make it
entertaining, on the edge of the seat thriller, like ‘Argo’ or Eye in the
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Sky’, ‘Parmanu’ should be on the edge of the seat thriller film and
tenure.
The actor and the team of writers and patriotism should be the byproduct.”
director Abhishek Sharma did an extensive The film was embroiled in a legal battle between two producers -
John’s JA Entertainment and Prernaa Arora’s KriArj Entertainment.
research on the subject and met several According to the actor, releasing the film is like a “nuclear test” as
officials in BARC, ISRO, DRDO, people in
the Intelligence Bureau and Army. he has fought very hard for it.
He revealed that during such testing times there were few people
“Col Sharma was there when Pokhran from the film industry who stood behind him in solidarity like Karan
test happened and he was consultant for
our film. We changed the names of all the Johar, Nana Patekar and Arjun Rampal.
characters...we couldn’t keep (nuclear After several delays in the release - from December 2017 to
February 2018- and then moving on to March and April, the film is
scientist and former President) APJ Abdul now scheduled to arrive in theatres on May 25.
Kalam’s name but we have kept the plot
real.

54 |DALLAS | JUNE 2018 | VOL 153 www.thebmagazine.com