Actor John Abraham who is gearing up for the release of his forthcoming film ‘Batla House’, feels that true definition of independence according him is tolerance towards life, cast, religion and gender and he thinks that it has taken a backseat in today’s time.
John Abraham was interacting with the media at the trailer launch of ‘Batla House’ along with his co-actors Mrunal Thakur, Nora Fatehi, film’s director Nikkhil Advani, writer Ritesh Shah, producers Bhushan Kumar, Sandeep Leyzell, Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani on Wednesday in Mumbai.
When asked John what according to him is a true definition of independence since his film is releasing on Independence Day, he said, “I think independence today is about tolerance. Its tolerance towards life, cast, religion and gender so, it’s just about tolerance today because it has taken a backseat.”
‘Batla House’ is inspired by the Operation Batla House that took place in 2008, the film stars John Abraham in the lead role as a police officer named Sanjeev Kumar Yadav.
John Abraham has featured in several patriotic films in his career, when asked John whether it’s a conscious decision on his part to feature in patriotic theme based films, he said, “I don’t think you require any talent to love your country. I think it comes naturally when you feel for the country.”
John said that he likes to do all kinds of films but subject of ‘Batla House’ is very special, he said, “It’s (Batla House) a fantastic film. I am very excited and I am not worried about anything in this film. I feel Nikkhil (Advani) is the hero of this film because he has done fantastic job while making it. I have seen the film and I am very happy as an audience. After this film, my next film is a comedy film which is called ‘Pagalpanti’. I like to do all kinds of films and I really like comedy films but I feel this kind of subject is very special.”
Akshay Kumar starrer ‘Mission Mangal’ is going to clash with John Abraham’s ‘Batla House’ on independence day, when asked John whether he feels any kind of rivalry between him and Akshay Kumar as last year also their films clashed with each other on independence day, he said, “Akshay and I are very dear friends. We get along really well. In fact, few days ago, we messaged each other. There is absolutely nothing between us and we are just releasing two films on a same day.”
He added, “There is enough space for both films and we are giving choice to audience to choose from two films. I can assure that our film is really good. I hope the other two films (Mission Mangal and Saaho) are also very good and I feel August 15th is a great day to release these films.”
When asked John whether he thinks that playing a cop is a hit formula for a film, he said, “No.. It’s not. I feel content is the hit formula for a film. If your film is good, it will run. If it’s not good, it will not run. You can wear cop’s uniform in a bad films as well so, content is most important.”
When aksed John how looks at controversies which takes place in an actor’s life, he said, “Controversy will happen at every stage in your life whether you are star, actor or a common person. There is going to be some controversy at a level in your life. I have handled it by not reacting to it but each person handles it very differently. There are people who get violent, upset and angry. I look at it constructively which is why you will never see me having an outburst because I process everything in my head.”
‘Batla House’ is an action thriller film directed by Nikkhil Advani and it stars John Abraham, Mrunal Thakur, Ravi Kishan, Prakash Raj and Nora Fatehi in important roles.
The film is scheduled to release theatrically on 15 August 2019.