John Abraham plays Mumbai based gangster Amartya Rao in Mumbai Saga. (Photo: PR Handout) John Abraham’s upcoming film Mumbai Saga’s trailer was launched in a theatre in Mumbai on Friday. While we lost a count of people his character, Amartya Rao, killed and bullets he shot in the trailer itself, one thing is clear — the Sanjay Gupta directorial is made for the masses.
In a media interaction that followed the trailer launch, John was asked what is in the gangster genre that lures him to keep coming back to it. John had played Manya Surve in Gupta’s 2013 crime thriller, Shootout at Wadala.
To this John said that he picks these films to connect with the audiences because that’s where “he belongs”.
Yeh Hai Bombay Se Mumbai Ka Saga.
Yahan Raaj Usi Ka Hoga, Jiski Himmat Uski Taaqat Se Badi Hogi!!https://t.co/3y6aQXtilY#MumbaiSaga TRAILER OUT NOW,
film IN CINEMAS on 19th March, 2021.@TheJohnAbraham @emraanhashmi @_SanjayGupta #BhushanKumar @Tseries #WhiteFeatherFilms— Mumbai Saga (@MumbaiSagaMovie) February 26, 2021
He said, “You must do films that relate to a mass audience, not just a few people, probably, sitting in one fancy theatre. I think this film reaches out to the masses. I saw what Manya Surve did for me and, for sure, Sanjay also. This has got relatabality with a very large section of an audience, specially the mass audiences. When you in the interiors of India they really remember these characters, they are memorable.”
John then also spoke against the ongoing rage of trending online as he thinks it doesn’t really help the movie business or help reach the masses, and about how he doesn’t pay heed to any troll.
He said, “When you make films, make it for the people. We try and cater to a very small audience, we get scared of criticism only on the net. The biggest fear in my life is that I am scared to trend (online). If I trend, I know I’m a joke, so I want to stay away from this trend business, and I really want to reach out to the masses.”
John then spoke about how larger-than-life crime thrillers have actually made up a good portion of his career and given him the popularity amongst his fans. He said, “I think Mumbai Saga is giving us the opportunity to go back to the masses, where we belong. For people like me, my career was made on screens, so why can’t I reach out to them. I will rather go back to them and cater to these audiences. And, I enjoy playing gangster with Sanjay, it is like auto pilot for me.”
Mumbai Saga, helmed by Sanjay Gupta is bankrolled by T-Series’ Bhushan Kumar. Along with John Abraham, the film also stars Emraan Hashmi, Suniel Shetty, Kajal Aggarwal, Rohit Roy, Anjana Sukhani, Mahesh Manjrekar, Prateik Babbar, Samir Soni, Amole Gupte and Gulshan Grover.
The film is scheduled for release on 19 March 2021.
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