“I was very influenced by the nuclear tests”

VickyDonor was on sperm donation, Madras Cafe was around the Sri Lankancivil war and Parmanu - The Story of Pokhran is on India’s 1998 nucleartests. The subjects may seem fit for documentaries, but actor JohnAbraham — the common factor as the producer of the films — says hismotive is to make commercially entertaining, engaging and non-formulaiccinema.Parmanu, which released on Friday, tells a story around the nuclear tests conducted in 1998 at Pokhran, Rajasthan.There’s a reason why John chose the subject.“Iwas very influenced by Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, and by the nucleartests. It defined the trajectory in my life because of incidents thatwere associated with the sanctions that followed. I was planning to gosomewhere, to a college, (but I) didn’t get through. There was anger atfirst; then, the understanding came that this (nuclear status) can makeIndia great... I started thinking like an Indian and started feelinglike a nationalist,” John says an interview.Why is there a need to tell this story to the audience today?“Ithink today’s youth does not know what happened 20 years ago in May1998,” John said. In his head, when he thinks of the most defining thingin India’s history after Independence, he feels it’s one when India hadcircumvented US satellites, fooled everybody and conducted nucleartests right under their nose.“It is the biggest case of nuclearespionage in the world, and it happened on Indian soil. I thought it wasa story to be told. I asked myself, ‘Is this film very difficult topull off?’ And then I smiled because I was going to do it. And becauseit was difficult to pull off, and was not a formula film, I decided todo it.”To answer the question straight, John said: “When I decidedto do it, I knew I wanted to make an engaging thriller like Argo, Eye InThe Sky, like Zero Dark Thirty, where it doesn’t matter if the youngaudience cares what happened 20 years ago or not.“But theby-product, like in any of my films — be it Vicky Donor or Madras Cafe —when you walk out, you walk out feeling that ‘Wow, I am proud to be anIndian... This is cool that India did this. I didn’t know this’. That’swhat I wanted to achieve with this film.“I didn’t want to make anovertly patriotic jingoistic film... I am not here to makedocumentaries. I am here to make commercial films which giveentertainment.”Marrying commerce with content was always his mainstay as a producer.“Tomarry the two is the toughest thing, and I try to achieve it most ofthe times,” said the 45-year-old, who has clocked 15 years in the filmindustry, dabbling in movies as different as Water and Dhoom, No Smokingand Garam Masala or a Taxi No. 9211 with Dostana.Yet, he said hefelt the need to become a producer because he didn’t get to see or actin the kind of films he wanted. Now he feels “empowered”.“Our(banner’s) content is so curated and so researched that it’s verydifficult to go wrong. Yes, everybody goes wrong with their choice, butthe way we curate our subjects, we reduce the risk of the probability offailure.”The business parlance in John’s conversation stems from the fact that he is an economics graduate and an MBA degree holder.“Inmy life, I find it very important to tell the stories I want to tell. Iwant people to understand that I can make a difference to cinema, andbeing a management student, as they say, the higher the risk, thegreater the profit. I will take that risk because very clearly, I am notafraid of failure. People leverage from their successes, I learn frommy failures.“I’m one of those crazy guys who really enjoy failures. Ihave no fear in failing, and when you don’t have that, nothing can stopyou,” he asserted.Parmanu has also left him wiser as a producer as he fought a legal battle for it.“Chooseyour partners wisely to see where the money comes from or doesn’t comefrom. Just be smart about it and work with trusted people in theindustry who can help you deliver,” he said.This is also why John is trying to build his own “ecosystem”.“I’mcreating a self-contained model in JA Entertainment where I get thebest of the best to work together, hold on to each other and we createan army. But our USP will always remain the content,” added John, whosekitty is already full of diverse projects as an actor.There’sSatyamev Jayate, Batla House and RAW. He is also looking forward tocreate an Attack franchise in the “real action...very Dwayne Johnson,Bruce Willis, Steven Seagal space”.