John Abraham: Working in action films is like doing an item song for me

Mumbai: Actor John Abraham returns in a new action avatar in the gangster drama Mumbai Saga. He says performing an action scene, to him, is like doing an item song, and adds that he likes working in mass-oriented films because the mass audience has shaped his career.

“For some actors, they love dancing. For me, action is my dance. It’s like item song to me,” said John.

The trailer of Mumbai Saga has released, and going by the three-minute clip John will engage in heavy duty action in the Sanjay Gupta film, co-starring Emraan Hashmi, Suniel Shetty, Jackie Shroff, and Kajal Aggarwal. The film also features Prateik Babbar, Rohit Roy, Anjana Sukhani and Gulshan Grover. John portrays a gangster who aspires to rule Bombay while Emraan is cast as a cop who wants to kill John and win a prize money of Rs 10 crore. The film is set for a theatrical release on March 19.

How does he manage to come up with a different kind of action in every film? “It’s tough because I feel like my bones are breaking but I try to do different action in different films. This film has raw action. In this film, my character has a conflict with Emraan’s character. It’s a gangster film and we are showing what has happened in reality.”

The action in Mumbai Saga is quite removed from his stunts in his other upcoming film, Attack, he noted.

“In Attack, we are doing very different futuristic action. It’s difficult but I enjoy this space,” John informed.

Talking to the media at the trailer launch of Mumbai Saga, John spoke of his slant at doing mass-oriented films. “I think you must do films that relate to the mass audience and not just a few people who are sitting in a fancy theatre. I saw what Manya Surve (his character in Shootout At Wadala) did for me and Sanjay (Gupta). So, this kind of films are relatable with a large section of the audience,” he said.

“When you go to the interiors of India, they really remember these characters. I think every actor has a fantastic and memorable character, so I feel when you make films; you should make it for the people. We are scared of criticism on the internet and the biggest cuss word in my life at least is that I am scared of the word ‘trend’. I want to stay away from this trend business,” he added.