John to turn producer, director, maybe writer!

By Hindustan Times

It’s been nine years since John Abraham made a sizzling debut in Jism (2003). And now the model-turned-actor, who has an MBA degree, is keen to build himself as an “honest, credible, commercially viable” brand with three verticals: actor, producer and director.

And, maybe even scriptwriter. His role model is Farhan Akhtar who started out as a writer-lyricist, before moving to producing, directing, acting and singing in movies. Today, he balances all his roles.

“Acting will always be my focus, and the big-budget films that define John Abraham such as Housefull 2, Race 2 and Dostana 2 will keep coming. But I also want to make commercial, entertaining movies that reflect my ideology. I want all the verticals to co-exist in a revenue model that benefits my studio and the paying public, ” he says.

John’s been working closely with Sanjay Gupta on Shootout At Wadala, which went on the floors on Thursday. For now, the actor has been reading up on Manya Surve and meeting those who knew the late gangster.

He’s also been brainstorming with Shoojit Sircar on Vicky Donor, JA Entertainment Pvt Ltd’s maiden production that opens on May 11. In September, his second production, Jaffna will kick off.

“Shoojit was surprised I knew so much about Sri Lanka and its history. I’m very socially and politically aware and know more about the world than what’s happening in Bollywood. I have been writing a lot recently, mostly fiction. Maybe one of the stories could turn into a screenplay and I could turn director,” he says, adding, “If the idea is good, I could fly with it next year or in two years or maximum five years.”

After almost a decade, actor John has turned the corner. And the buzz is that post his break-up with Bipasha Basu, he’s found the perfect match in Priya Marwah with whom he secretly tied the knot in Los Angeles earlier this year.

He laughs off the rumours, “Married? Thank God there aren’t any children yet. I’ve always been fiercely guarded about my personal life, so all I’ll say is that there’s a lot happening in my life now. It’s a new beginning.”

Jaffna in Sri Lanka
“George Clooney’s geopolitical thriller, Syriana (2005) ranks amongst my favourite films and I want to enter the same space with Jaffna,” says John, who’s gearing up to go shoot his second production in Sri Lanka with local artistes.Previously, his film Water (2005), which was nominated for the Oscars,was filmed in Sri Lanka. Refusing to divulge more, John insists that Jaffna will go beyond the LTTE and the contentious Tamil issue and surprise people with a well-researched story about what actually happened in Sri Lanka.

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