John Abraham to take on Batman and Superman on March 25

10 Feb 2016

It's apocalypse time at the Indian box office, what with John Abraham's Rocky Handsome ready to take on Zack Synder's summer Hollywood extravaganza Batman Vs Superman Dawn Of Justice which features Henry Cavill as Superman and Ben Affleck as Batman.

Director Nishikant Kamat feels the action scenes in Rocky Handsome take the action genre in Bollywood to the next level. "We had to make sure the action scenes surpassed whatever John had done in his earlier films, or for that matter whatever was attempted in the action genre before this." Kamat feels the stunts in Rocky Handsome are unique. "They are stylized yet raw and real. If you ask me for a reference it would have to be Transporters ." Kamat conducted a 3-week action workshop with John. "He has a very pumped-up gym-designed body. We needed John to be more agile. We prepared John for the role in Bangkok. We had an action team from Bangkok and India." Rocky Handsome which is the Hindi remake of the Korean film The Man From Nowhere would also have television actor Sharat Kelkar attempting some daring stunts. "The endeavour was to go one-up on what was attempted in the Korean film. Let's see how far we've succeeded," Nishikant Kamat has his fingers crossed.

Bollywood movies which took a beating from Hollywood spectacles: Dibakar Bannerjee's Detective Byomkesh Bakshy released alongside Furious 7 Muzaffar Ali's Jaanissar released alongside Mission Impossible Rogue Nation disappeared without a trace Mohit Suri's highly awaited Hamari Adhuri Kahani released alongside Jurassic World was a shocking disaster.

However the global blockbuster Star Wars The Force Awakens released a week after Bajirao Mastani and Dilwale last December, could not affect the ticket sales of the two blockbusters.

The release of Avengers Age Of Ultron was preponed by a week to avoid a clash with Gabbar Is Back . Commenting on the clash trade analyst Taran Adarsh says, "Should Bollywood feel threatened by Hollywood? Yes, it should. Hollywood offers interesting plot lines with a larger-than-life canvas. There is a sizable chunk of audience that favors Hollywood films. And when most big Hollywood films are released simultaneously and dubbed in local languages, the danger to Bollywood releases is even more pronounced."