John Abraham – I wasn’t comfortable with comedy initially

He has hit films like “Houseful 2” and “Garam Masala” to his credit but Bollywood actor John Abraham says initially he was sceptical of being a part of comedies.

The 42-year-old actor will be next seen in Anees Bazmee’s romantic-comedy “Welcome Back”, a sequel to the 2007 hit “Welcome”. The movie also stars Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor and Shruti Haasan among others.

John said he has a lot of people to thank for helping him become better in comic scenes.

“Initially, I wasn’t comfortable with comedies at all.

During ‘Garam Masala’, my first scene was with Rajpal Yadav and Paresh Rawal. I was shaken up.

“I was very new then. I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. I give credit to Priyadarshan sir, Neeraj Vohra and Akshay for helping me reach here,” the actor told reporters here.

John’s filmography as an actor comprise a good mix of action and comedy movies ranging from “Force” to “Desi Boyz”.

Maintaining the balance, “Welcome Back” will be followed by actor’s action drama “Rocky Handsome”, which is directed by “Drishyam” director Nishikant Kamat. John is also co-producing the movie.

The film will see John re-teaming with Shruti. The actor said the movie has the best action ever in Indian cinema.

“‘Rocky Handsome has the best action till date in Indian cinema. It has the most intense action. The film has the perfect combination of action and emotion.”

In a departure from the light-hearted multi-starrers, the producer John helms movies with serious subjects– dealing with sperm donation in “Vicky Donor” and “Madras Cafe”, which was set in the period during Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war and assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

When asked how he makes choices as a filmmaker, John said, “‘Vicky Donor’ was a serious film. It wasn’t a joke. People enjoyed it but it was a very serious film on sperm donation.

“Just like that I produced ‘Madras Cafe’ because it impacted my life while growing up. So, I will only make movies like that. I will produce movies like ‘Madras Cafe’ and ‘Vicky Donor’.”

The success of “Vicky Donor” (2012) gave rise to speculation that a sequel would follow soon, with actor Ayushmann Khurrana also publicly expressing desire to have a second part.

John, however, begs to differ, saying there is no such script that he would like to move forward with.

“‘Vicky Donor’ is one such film where at this point of time we would not want to make a sequel. If we get a good script, we will definitely make it because that’s the biggest property we have.

“There are some films that should just remain like that.

Every film can’t get a sequel. For example ‘Dostana’ should not get a sequel because when the film released homosexuality was a taboo. You made the film at that time it was fine. Now if you stretch the same subject the audience will say the original was good how did they make the second part,” he said.

Inputs by PTI