John Abraham on big entourages of newcomers in Bollywood: I don't want another football team in my life

In the recent times, filmmakers like Hansal Mehta and Anurag Kashyap have spoken about how Bollywood needs to invest in new faces and take more risks with them. Actor John Abraham has been doing that whenever he has worn the producer’s hat. In his first production Vicky Donor (2012), he launched actors Ayushmann Khurrana and Yami Gautam, and more recently he worked with considerably new actors like Sharvari in Vedaa (2024) and Sadia Khateeb in The Diplomat.

Ask him what pulls him towards working with fresh faces and he says, “A lot of newcomers come with no baggage and it's easier to work with them. And for me, my director's word is final. I never go with this predisposed notion of taking a film child or an outsider. For me, they're all the same, anyone who fits the bill, works for me. So, I never get into that discussion of outsiders and children from the industry.”

However, John admits that it’s a problem for him when his talent comes with baggage like huge entourages. “If you come with 14 people, a publicist, an agent, a media manager and your own scriptwriter, basically when you come with a football team, that becomes very troublesome for me. In real life, I have a football team, and I know how much money that has cost me, so I don't want another football team in my life. It's better that they stay away,” he quips.

John likes to see a hunger in his actors, just like himself. “I don't have a big team around me, and I operate in a very small way. So, I expect my colleagues to operate like me and that I only ask for as a producer. If I'm working on someone else's film, then that's the producer's prerogative as to how much staff they want to entertain. That's why newcomers are probably slightly more suited for me, till they get corrupt. After a film or two, success comes to them, and they move on into different planes. So, then I again, look for newcomers,” he says.