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Promos of I Me Aur Main are on and they have managed to throw in a pleasant surprise. Just when one had started believing that it was the image of ‘Action Abraham’ that Johnny dear had adopted for good, he is being seen in a romcom that clearly seems to be inspired by Hollywood romcoms at least in terms of setting and characterisation.
One does wonder what made first time director Kapil Sharma adopt this anti-casting of sorts for his film when one would have expected a chocolate boy to be filling in the frames, specifically for this genre.
“Well, I would give myself good credit of thinking that John Abraham was the perfect choice for the film. But then I have to give almost entire credit to John for actually pulling this off as well”, chuckles Kapil, “He is someone who represents an Indian man with international good looks. He has the kind of masculinity and sensitivity that sets him apart.”
Commenting on many other films that have projected an urban male lead in a specific manner, he says, “If you look at Karan Johar’s films, the male leads there are slightly more metro-sexual. On the other hand I wanted someone to bring in that right balance to the character of a man child. This is what we were trying to tell in the film and John fitted the bill to the T. I can proudly say that he was our Number One casting choice and he really embraced the spirit of the film.”
Did at any point in time it also played in the mind of Kapil or his producers Goldie Behl and Shrishti Arya that they could do something radically different with John, hence adding on to the surprise quotient?
“No, it was never a blind narrative that chalo, John ke saath kuch alag karte hain. What worked in John’s favour was the kind of image he has managed to build, courtesy his many endorsements”, says Kapil, “If you look at his public image, it is more than just an action image. He is actually being seen as this good looking urban man who very well knows how to take care of himself. The gamble that we played was to believe that audience would easily absorb him in the part of a slightly narcissistic and a self-obsessed man.”
As a final word, he adds, “See, John is the kind of man for whom you hate your woman for liking. That says it all. We wanted to take that image and extend that further.”
We would love to see how it plays on screen once I Me Aur Main with Chitrangada Singh and Prachi Desai in the lead releases all over on 1st March.
Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder
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