John Abraham is a self-confessed stickler for time. He likes his movies to be on time – as in on schedule – and he likes to be punctual when he’s attending an event.So when he had an event in Delhi recently, and his flight from Mumbai was delayed, he says he got the heebie-jeebies stuck up there in the air, knowing he was going to be late. “I had a 6.55 pm flight from Mumbai, which took off at 8.30 pm and landed at Delhi at 10.55 pm,” he says – obviously, he was counting the minutes!
“And we were discussing on the flight – this was like the Dubai flight, which takes four hours to reach India! It was the first time I’ve felt that kind of pressure, because I’m someone who’s never late. For me to be stuck 27,000 feet above sea level and not know what to do was quite unnerving. The only thing I told my manager, who was sitting next to me, was, ‘I wish there were parachutes here so we could skydive.’ Because that seemed like the only option, there was no other way of getting down in time!”
No wonder – there’s so much that John is doing, it must be essential for him to manage his time. He’s doing movies, he’s a biker, he walks the ramp, and now, like many others in tinsel town, he’s also turning producer! That’s why he has a new perspective on the producer-multiplex issue now. “I’m also a co-producer now and I understand the ins and outs of the issue. I’m co-producing my upcoming films – with Abbas Tyrewala, Nishikant Kamat and Devan Khote. I feel I understand the concerns of the producers. I think what Aamir and Shah Rukh have done is acknowledged them. And that’s a good thing – to bring in change. I’m glad that they got together as producers rather than as actors and said that we need to get things right. I stand by the producers and the distributors. And whenever we actors are needed, we’ll be there to support the entire film fraternity,” he says.
‘Mahi’s made me watch cricket’
John walked the ramp recently at the Kolkata Fashion Week, and it wasn’t because he’s been a model and has walked the ramp many times. He did it for good friend Mahi – Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni – who’s the brand ambassador of the Kolkata Fashion Week. “I don’t know whether I have time to go to South Africa (for the IPL) or not. But when his team came to Mumbai and they played against the Mohali IPL team last season, I went to watch. It was good fun. I don’t watch much cricket, but with Mahi, I’ve started,” he says. “And it was great fun walking the ramp. I was a model before I was an actor. So if anybody can walk the ramp, honestly, I think I can!”
John’s been busy with the shooting of Hook Ya Crook in Hyderabad. “I was in Hyderabad for a month – getting totally tanned! I’ve gone so brown, yaar. It’s pretty dry and hot there. We have about 15 days of the shoot left. The good part is that we’re ahead of schedule. And you know that a movie finishing on schedule rarely happens. But if people start coming on time, then it’ll happen quite often,” says John.
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