John joins SRK, Aamir

John Abraham joins Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan in Danny Boyle and Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet...

Mumbai Mirror had reported on September 14 in the story Boyle Bells The Cats? that Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan will star together in Danny Boyle and Anurag Kashyap’s forthcoming film, Bombay Velvet.

Well, the film got much bigger as news is that John Abraham was actually the first actor to be signed on for the international epic.

A source says, “This was just after John and Anurag formed a mutual fan-club after working together in No Smoking.

Although the film didn’t work at the box-office both John and Anurag vowed to do another film. That’s when Bombay Velvet was born.

The film has three segments and John was signed on for the second segment. He will play a real-life 1960s hero of the masses.” SRK and Aamir will star in the first and third segments respectively. John has since then been reading up extensively to prepare for his first true-to-life character.

The role requires him to completely change his body language and to get rid of his very contemporary body language and mannerisms. In fact, friends have been provoking John into believing that he is no longer part of the project. But John isn’t the least bit fazed.

A friend of John says, “When he heard that Aamir was signed, John was really happy for Anurag. People told John that Aamir had replaced him but John knew the truth. Even if it was true, he’d have been happy for Anurag.

However, Anurag would never ever drop John. After 10 years of struggle in the film industry, John was the first hero who took Anurag seriously. Earlier every attempt to get into the big league had failed. Anurag would rather drop the project than drop John.”

Speaking about John starring in Bombay Velvet, Anurag Kashyap had said earlier, “John Abraham has drastically cut his price for my next film Bombay Velvet. So even when I work with stars my project becomes economical.

I don’t charge any money as a director until the film makes money. After No Smoking, John and I want to make sure our film is accessible to the audience. Today I realise where I had gone wrong in my earlier cinema. I’m working on my weak points. I tend to get repetitive. So I’ve got two writers for Bombay Velvet who criticised me the most for No Smoking.”