‘I’ve always been an understated actor’

Having worked in more than 30 films in seven years, John Abraham says audiences have become more accepting of his understated, realistic style of acting. He also wants to wield the megaphone soon and is sure of doing a good job as a director.

Published: Thu 25 Nov 2010, 8:15 PM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 1:02 PM

“I have good friends around me who are directors and writers. They are all willing to sit with me, help me and formulate screenplays. I have ideas and I want to become a director very soon and when I become one, I will be damn good at it,” John said recently.

“Probably, five to eight years down the line, I’ll direct a film. I’m just seven-years-old in the industry. I want to first settle down properly and prove myself in a big way and then I will get into direction,” added the actor who turns 38 next month.

Explaining his evolution as an actor, he said: “After all these years, I’ve become very comfortable with the medium, but more than myself I’ve seen a change in the perception of the audience towards me.

“I’ve always been an understated actor. I’m not into over-projection. When I joined the industry, there was a section of the audience that felt I was too understated. Today the same audiences have a different perception and somehow that same style of acting is working for them now.

“I really haven’t changed. I’m following my director’s brief and I’m doing exactly that. But people’s perceptions have changed. The sense of reality has prevailed in the mind of the audience and I think that’s the change I have seen.”

His nerdy look in Jhootha Hi Sahi failed to set the cash registers ringing, but the Bollywood hunk has not given up. He is all set to play boy-next-door in a new film. “The film is about just a regular guy who gets busted by all the women in his life. It’s about a guy who learns life through the women he is with - his mother, sister, his boss, his neighbour, his girlfriend, his ex-girlfriend. It’s about his journey.”

“Right now it’s called The Re-education of Ishaan Sabharwal. That’s a working title,” he said.

Currently, he is busy with director Nishikant Kamat and producer Vipul Shah’s Hindi remake of the Tamil blockbuster Kaakha Kaakha. The action movie also stars Genelia D’Souza.

“I have already shot 20 per cent of the film. We shot for 25 days, we have another 40-45 days left and we are done. So we finish in January end,” said John. 