At a time when most Bollywood stars from Dharmendra to Shah Rukh Khan to Saif Ali Khan have turned producers, how can John Abraham be far behind? The bare-all boy has decided to join the actor-cum-producer bandwagon with the Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na director Abbas Tyrewala’s directorial next, 1-800-Love co-starring Pakhi (Abbas’s wife). John Abraham is co-producing the film with Madhu Mantena (the Ghajini producer) and Abbas Tyrewala.

Ghajini producer Madhu Mantena reveals: “1-800-Love is being produced by me, John and Abbas as partners. All of us are equal partners and we want to jointly make the film. Abbas and I have been friends for quite sometime. We have been wanting to do something together. I am glad that John has also come on board.”

Whose idea it was to cast Abbas Tyrewala’s wife Pakhi, who happens to be the writer of the film, in the lead role opposite John? “When Pakhi narrated the story of the film to John and me, both of us turned around and said ‘Why don’t you act? You seem to know the character so well. We can’t imagine anybody else in the role.’ We are glad that she agreed,” says Madhu.

The film is being shot in Boston, USA. “We have some great technicians from around the world working on the film. The dollar is going up by almost 25 per cent, so I think now it’s going to be slightly more expensive,” admits Madhu.

But Abbas Tyrewala is strangely tightlipped about the making of 1-800-Love. “I am completing the director’s draft. I have started working on the music and pre-production and we will start shooting from May 2009. It’s going to be shot in Boston.... But I can’t say more at the moment because it’s too premature to talk about the movie. For Jaane Tu … we ended up talking about the film for three years. I don’t want to make the same mistake again,” said he.

We couldn’t reach John but his publicist Shruti came on line. She said: “I can’t say anything as of now. It’s too early to talk.”