John Abraham who is gearing up for the release of his upcoming film ‘Parmanu – The Story of Pokhran’ has said that his film is not an anti-Pakistan film but it’s a pro-India film
John Abraham was interacting with media in Mumbai at the trailer launch of his upcoming film ‘Parmanu – The Story of Pokharan along with other actors Diana Penty, Anuja Sathe, Aditya Hitkari, director Abhishek Sharma and writers Sanyuktha Chawla Sheikh, Saiwyn Quadras on Friday coinciding with the 20th anniversary of India’s nuclear test explosions at Pokhran.
Generally, Pakistan censor board censors Indian films in Pakistan which shows Pakistan in negative light so, when asked John what are his plans to release “Parmanu – The Story of Pokaran’ in Pakistan, he said, “We are coming with 300 screens in Pakistan.
This is not an anti-Pakistan film, it’s a pro-India film so we are very clear that this is a film about India and we are very proud of this moment and we want to celebrate this.
If we start thinking about other markets, we will be compromising on our film as we want to tell the story as it is and we don’t want to deviate from that.”
John will mark his come back on big screen almost after 2 years as he was last seen in ‘Force 2’ which released in 2016, so when asked why he takes so much of gap when it comes to release his films, he said, “I like taking time.
I wanted a good subject so after force, I think it was only ‘Parmanu’.
Out of insecurity, I would have signed 10 films but I didn’t want to do that.
I just want to do one film and I am very happy that ‘Parmanu’ is my next film so, I don’t have problem waiting.. it is absolutely okay”
The film was in a lockdown after its initial co-producers JA Entertainment and KriArj Entertainment became at loggerheads.
John had filed criminal cases against Prernaa Arora and her company KriArj Entertainment, for cheating, breach of trust, defamation and offences committed under the Information Technology Act.
The Bombay High Court ruled in favour of John’s banner, ceasing the film’s association with KriArj Entertainment, reacting to whole controversy, John said, “I think we have been through a journey.
I think releasing this film is like conducting a nuclear test so we finally made it happen.
I think everything happens for the best. We want to bring positivity around the film and we want to speak good things about the film. We are not here to throw mud on anybody’s face.
We want to keep it clean.”
“I think at the end of the day, it not about a film, it’s about your credibility and what you stand for.
I think we are vindicated for what we stood for and that’s important.
As a creative person, you want audience to see a good film and I didn’t want this to go without audience seeing it so, we fought our way.
We came here and standing here so controversies aside, I think quality of a film that’s going to speak.
If this film is good people will talk about it and it’s not good people will not talk about it. I think we are standing here because we think we have made a good film.
We have got only two weeks to promote this film so ,we need all media support because we don’t have luxury of time that normal films do but we have luxury of the fantastic subject”
“At one point it deactivated me but Abhishek told me look at positive side of it and look at publicity that our film is getting through it and we kept calling each other up just to give motivation to each other that everything will be fine as we haven’t done anything wrong.
We are honest people and it will happen the right way and this exactly it all has happened so yes I do feel bad when people talk negative about your production house and the film because this film is like my child and if someone speaks badly I can turn him around and tear him apart. I am not violent but anyway, it all has ended well”
John Abraham has produced critically acclaimed films like ‘Vicky Donor’ and ‘Madras Cafe’ under his production house, so when asked John what could be reason that Hindi film industry has escapist attitude when it comes to making film like ‘Parmanu – The Story of Pokhran’, he said, “There is a saying in management that ‘the higher the risk, the greater the profit’ so, if you do not take a risk and do something different then you will make stereotypical films only so, you have to move on from there.
I think it’s important to make different films and I am getting the opportunity to make those films because I am a producer also now so,
I have the authority to decide on which film I will work on. I have got a fantastic team with me which pushes to dwell into different kind of scripts.”
“We have decided internally that we cannot make an adult comedy because that is not our strength and we are not well equipped to do it but we can make a story like ‘Parmanu..’, “Madras Cafe’ Vicky Donor’ and even film like ‘Force’ but we cannot do things that are not within our grain”
When asked John what prompted him to make film nuclear test in India, he said, “First of all, our motive was to make an entertaining film.
We didn’t wanted to make a documentary so it’s a very entertaining film and people who have seen this film in our office has told me that it has been best film made on India so when you get that kind of reaction , you feel amazing. Earlier internationally, there was film named ‘Argo’ and it was edge of the seat film so ‘Parmanu’ also has got that thing. I don’t think audience will move through 1 hour of the film and that was our effort”
“Another interesting aspect of the film is that while we were about to conduct nuclear test United States of America threatened us that if you will conduct it, you will be boycotted.
It’s about how we conducted and in what circumstances we did this.
I think the story is very interesting because this is the biggest case of nuclear espionage in the world ever to do it under the nose of rival nation and during that time it was biggest failure of CIA (American intelligence agency) and they have admitted it on record”
The film is an ode to the Indian Army and scientists who accomplished truly extraordinary feats in the face of adversity. It salutes, celebrates and truly embraces the slogan – Jai Jawan Jai Vigyan.
Parmanu: The Story Of Pokhran has been produced by Zee Studios and Kyta Productions in association with JA Entertainment.
The film is based on the nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by the Indian Army at Pokhran in 1998. It features John Abraham, Diana Penty and Boman Irani. It is slated to be released on 25th May 2018.