'My director (Lakshya Raj Anand) said, 'John, I don't want anybody in the cinema halls to pick up their phones and get distracted.'
'I want the film to be so fast and different that people instantly get hooked'.'
Attack, which releases on Friday, April 1, will see John Abraham as India's first 'super soldier'.
"I believe that action is not about six packs and body. It's about the intensity in your eyes," John tells Rediff.com Contributor Sameena Razzaq.
The first of a two-part riveting interview:
You are so good at action and you have a bankable reputation as a producer. What, according to you, is your niche?
I think I have carved my niche as a producer that makes different films, be it Vicky Donor, Madras Cafe, Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran or Batla House.
I am sure no one expected anything from Attack till they saw the teaser.
When they saw the teaser, they were like wow, here's an interesting story.
I think I love doing action.
Action is second nature to me, but it only works if it is conceptually different or there is a beautiful emotion attached to it.
To answer your question, I would like people to believe in JA Entertainment.
They should say 'arre yaar, yeh John Abraham ka production hai, thoda alag banayega woh.'
This should come across and if it doesn't, it would mean I am still battling.
I want people to say look at the track record of the films I have made.
What are your expectations from Attack?
I am not in the business of hard-selling crap.
Every film has act one, act two, act three...
In Attack, the first half is setting up the film and the other half is the climax. It is one hour and 46 minutes.
My director (Lakshya Raj Anand) is very young. He is 30 years old.
He said, 'John, I don't want anybody in the cinema halls to pick up their phones and get distracted. I want the film to be so fast and different that people instantly get hooked.'
Hopefully, he has achieved that.
My music director Shashwat Sachdev is also very young. He is 28 years old.
Sashwat composed the music first and then we shot the film on that music.
So this film is made differently. It's not like your regular film.
Attack is the first of many films where I gave complete freedom to my director, music director, sound designer, action director and set designer to create whatever they wanted to.
I think it's all come together really smartly.
Is Attack 2 in the pipeline already?
We have an idea ready. We don't know when we will start, honestly.
The only reason why we put part one was my decision because when I saw the end of the film, I felt like yaar, iska second hona chahiye.
It's not like we are making part two.
At this point of time, we are only concentrating on Attack.
We want to develop part two but currently, we have no actors in mind and no timeline.
Right now, there are certain set of subjects I am committed to.
My next is a film called Tehran. It's very close to my heart because I love that geo-political space. It's very Madras Cafe, Batla House based.
It's very heavy on beautiful content, in the Sicario meet Syriana space.
It's a very hard core political thing, but it's got a level of action which should be sensible.
You said in an interview that most action heroes don't know action. Is that really the case?
I will tell you what I meant.
Action heroes are so proficient in action, but what makes action heroes is their attitude. I mean that.
I believe that action is not about six packs and body. It's about the intensity in your eyes.
When you look across the board, the most successful action heroes are the guys who have a great attitude, not just a body.
Is Attack a rehash of films like Avengers, Universal Soldier, Robocop, Upgrade, Iron Man etc?
Attack is an amalgamation of many films, but it is a story that is unique to India.
It is a story about what's happening with DRDO, so there is a lot of credibility.
Like Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran and Batla House you will see a post script in Attack.
We have made a commercial entertainer, but there is some factuality in it.
Yes, possibly we have been inspired by films like Robocop, Upgrade, Universal Soldier and Iron Man and many more, but we wanted to create our own super soldier.
