After all the anguish, Parmanu released smoothly and is another feather in John Abraham’s deserving cap. The actor-producer feels relieved and vindicated when people say it is his best film as a producer and his best performance as an actor. Talking about his legal battle with erstwhile partner Prernaa Arora, he maintains, “When I realized this was a battle I had to justifiably fight alone. I’m a realist, I don’t expect anything from anyone, somebody had to raise their voice and I did.”

Today he is more wary when it comes to choosing production partners. “We, as an industry, run to where the money is. But after my experience, I will tell my colleagues to make sure they know exactly where the money comes from and more importantly, where it doesn’t come from. I’m a beggar for appreciation and money is just a by-product of the journey,” he maintains.

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It is true that he has taken immense risks as a producer, with films like Vicky Donor, Madras Café and Parmanu, which are far from safe commercial entertainers. It stems from his quest to blend content with commerce and ensure that everyone in the distribution chain makes money. “But at the same time, I want to explore subjects difficult to make because I’m not afraid of failure, so I can take risks. I’ll take full responsibility for the failure of any film made under my banner and if I’m successful, I’d like people to know that I went with my gut instinct. I’m prepared for the bouquets with the brickbats and here, I got the bouquets.”

Fans will be thrilled to know that they will see a lot more of the actor on the big screen. He has wrapped up Satyamev Jayate, signed another Nikkhil Advani production, Batla House, and kicked off RAW. There’s also a film with Rensil D’Silva which will happen by the middle of next year and a web series based on the book, Moryaa Re: The Ganpati Murders...

Most of the films he is doing right now are high-voltage dramas with a dash of action. Smiling, he admits that whether he does action or not, the image of an action hero stays and he is happy with that. “There’s a huge vacuum in the kind of action I do and I want to fill it with an intelligent emotional action film. We’re working on scripts. There’s a fantastic action series but that’s just an idea now.”

Intelligent emotional action – that absolutely sums up an actor-producer called John Abraham!