Production not a vanity project for me: John Abraham

Comedy is my favourite genre, says the actor.

New Delhi: With films like "Vicky Donor" and "Madras Cafe" John Abraham has established his credibility as a producer and the actor believes the reason for his success is the fact that he does not consider himself as the "hero" of every project. 

The 45-year-old actor, who has made some unusual choices like "Jism", "No Smoking" and "Taxi No 9211" in his close to two-decade-long acting career, says his production ventures are never about him. 

"With me, the only problem as a producer is that I love taking time on development. The advantage of me as producer is, I don't look at myself as a hero of every project. If I feel Varun, Tiger, Rajkummar Rao, or Sonakshi Sinha suit the role better, I will go to them. 

"Production is not a vanity project for me. Being a producer is a way of telling stories which I believe in. Even if I am not an option in the film, I am happy with that," John told PTI. 

The actor, whose latest production "Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran" released today, says commercial success of films is important to him but he will never compromise on the content. 

"You should not be in the business of filmmaking if you cannot make commercial sense out of it. For me, everybody in the distribution chain should make money. But at the same time, I am a creative person. I am not going to compromise on my creativity to belt out some crap. 

"I will not make a film because I have got 'A' actress and 'B' actor in it. I am not here to make proposals, I am here to make films. I want to tell good stories because I am not afraid of failure."

John says as a producer he is attracted to stories which have left an impact on him and "Parmanu" was one such incident. The actor, however, promises the film is not jingoistic in its approach. 

"I thought it impacted me so it will also impact young audience and make them feel that it is cool to be Indian. I just want the young audience to come and watch an engaging thriller. Patriotism is a by product of this film. We didn't go out of our way to make an overtly patriotic jingoistic film." 

Citing the example of "Madras Cafe", John says it was an "intelligent" film and with "Parmanu" he has tried to do the same, but with an intent to reach a wider audience. 

"'Madras Cafe' was a intelligent film with lots of information that is why it reached out to niche audience. With 'Parmanu', I want to reach out to wider audience without dumbing my film down. I wanted to make a film which had intelligent quotient. I want Parmanu to reach everybody. I hope people accept it," he says. 

John, who will soon start working on spy-thriller "Romeo Akbar Walter" (RAW), says he may be more frequent in action films but comedy has always been his favourite genre as a performer. 

"Comedy is my favourite genre. My fans love me in comedy. I am waiting for someone to offer me a comedy script. Wherever I go people praise me for my role in "Garam Masala" and "Dostana". Making people laugh is the toughest thing to do and I want to produce and act more comedy films".