With ‘Water’ continuing to make waves, John Abraham was hoping to carry his association with director Deepa Mehta and the West to a new level with their next project ‘Exclusion’.
“The response at the Toronto Film Festival to ‘Water’ was overwhelming. You had to be there to know what kind of impact it had made on the western audiences,” says John.
But it seems that John’s plans will have to temporarily wait. Deepa has decided to put her ambitious historical ‘Exclusion’ (earlier titled ‘Kamagata Maru’) on hold for now. “It’s a project that requires painstaking research,” says Deepa. “Though I’ve been researching on the project for two years I still haven’t been able to find a level of exactitude in the script that would satisfy me.”
Also, Deepa hasn’t yet got a green signal from Amitabh Bachchan who plays the main lead — he’ll give it after she sends him the entire script. “That will take some time, specially now when I need to focus on ‘Water’ at the Oscars.”
Adds Deepa, “I’m very fond of John. Do you know that it was my mom who strongly recommended him for the role of the Gandhian reformist in ‘Water’? I went ahead with her instincts, although my friends were sniggering at what they thought was a disastrous miscast.” She continues, “Now I’ve no choice but to work with John again. Or else my mom will stop talking to me!”
Not so good news for John though! With his films like Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Rock Star’ and Nagesh Kukunoor’s ‘Aashayen’ getting delayed he suddenly has a lot of empty pages in his date diary this year.
