John Abraham recalls Taliban's threat while filming Kabul Express in Afghanistan, adds 'Afghanis are loveliest people'

Actor John Abraham recently recalled the threat he and the rest of the team of Kabul Express had received from the Taliban when they were filming for the movie in Afghanistan. The film, released in 2006, told the fictional story of two Indian journalists, an American journalist and an Afghan guide who are taken hostage by Pakistani soldiers and are forced to take a 48-hour journey into a war-torn Afghanistan. Also Read| John Abraham recalls when dad got cheated by business partner, was worried about putting food on table

John, who played Indian journalist Suhel Khan in the thriller, recently shared his experience of filming in Afghanistan and described the locals as the loveliest people.

The actor told Mashable India: "There were no social media at that time. When I was leaving Afghanistan, Afghani people told me John jaan (jaan means bhai) whatever you do, don't say anything bad about Afghanistan. And today I want to say on record that Afghani people are the most beautiful, loveliest people in the world, amazing hospitality. Really lovely people, superb people."

John also recalled an incident that happened while he was staying at the house of Mohammad Najibullah, former President of Afghanistan, while he was filming for Kabul Express. He said, "It was an UN-approved hotel. I came to the terrace to have tea, and this rocket came from the front and hit the US consulate. Condoleezza Rice used to be the US foreign secretary to the state in Afghanistan at the time. It was Afghanistan's way of telling her that they are not happy with the Americans here. There was another incident where a suicide bomber had blown themselves up just six hours before we reached this location. It was quite an experience."

Afghan Express marked the first fictional film for director Kabir Khan who had made several documentaries over the years in Afghanistan until then. The filmmaker said that the movie was loosely based on his and his friend Rajan Kapoor's experiences in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

John will soon be seen in Attack alongside Jacqueline Fernandez, Rakul Preet Singh, Prakash Raj, and Ratna Pathak Shah. The film, which has been produced by his production house JA Entertainment and Ajay Kapoor Productions, is set to release on April 1.