John Abraham If Sanjeev Kumar thinks I am not good enough, he can SHOOT me

9 Jul 2019

John Abraham is all set for another movie, which is based on a real incident of national interest. Batla House , inspired by the Operation Batla House that took place in 2008, features him as police officer Sanjeev Kumar Yadav. Talking about the responsibility of play a real life character he says, The responsibility is even bigger as this is the first time I am playing someone who is still serving. If he (Sanjeev Kumar) thinks I am not good enough, he can shoot me (laughs!). So, I better be good at portraying him in the film. To get into the skin of the character, John spent a lot of time with Sanjeev. He shares, I spent a lot of time with Sanjeev and his wife Shobhna to understand his mindset, body language, the way he sits, stands, talks, reacts to situations and what he went through. I had a million questions for him. The actor adds, There were times when I was tempted to take creative liberties, but I refrained from that; I wanted to be true to the character. It was interesting playing him, but it was difficult, too, because it is a strong and conflicting character. A lot has happened in his life post the Batla House incident and to present that on screen was difficult. Its like walking on a double-edged sword and you dont want to tilt either way. So, this is not Nikkhil (Advani, director) or my version of a story that we want people to believe in, but this is what it we believe in, factually. There are different perspectives around this incident, on which John says, Batla House is not anti or pro any community or political establishment. Its a story of this mans life and what he went through. To put it in simple words, its a story of one mans life. I am aware that there will be conflicting views even if you stick to facts as closely as possible. However, the idea is to build a conversation and I hope we have done that with this film. One way of looking at it is to show different perspectives to the story and the other is to make the audience think and give them a reason for constructive argument.