With films like Vicky Donor and Madras Café, John Abraham has established his credibility as a producer and the actor believes the reason for his success is the fact that he does not consider himself as the “hero” of every project.

 

The 45-year-old actor, who has some unusual choice of films to his credit like Jism, No Smoking and Taxi No. 9211 in his close to two decades of acting career, says his production ventures are never about him.

 

He said: “With me, the only problem as a producer is that I love taking time on development. The advantage is, I don’t look at myself as a hero of every project. If I feel Varun (Dhawan), Tiger (Shroff), Rajkummar Rao, or Sonakshi Sinha suit the role better, I will go to them.

 

“Production is not a vanity project for me. Being a producer is a way of telling stories which I believe in. Even if I am not an option in the film, I am happy with that,” John told PTI.

 

The actor, whose latest production was Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran, says commercial success of films is important to him but he will never compromise on the content. “You should not be in the business of filmmaking if you cannot make commercial sense out of it. For me, everybody in the distribution chain should make money. But at the same time, I am a creative person. I am not going to compromise on my creativity to belt out some crap. I will not make a film because I have got ‘A’ actress and ‘B’ actor in it. I am not here to make proposals, I am here to make films. I want to tell good stories because I am not afraid of failure.”

 

Stories that leave an impact on him attract John as a producer. Parmanu was one such incident. “I just want the young audience to come and watch an engaging thriller. Patriotism is a byproduct of this film. We didn’t go out of our way to make an overtly patriotic jingoistic film.”

 

John, who will soon start working on spy-thriller Romeo Akbar Walter (RAW), says he may be more frequent in action films but comedy has always been his favourite genre as a performer.

 

“My fans love me in comedy. I am waiting for someone to offer me a comedy script. Wherever I go people praise me for my role in Garam Masala and Dostana.

 

Making people laugh is the toughest thing to do and I want to produce and act more comedy films.”