He deserves better, but sadly, John Abraham’s career seems to have come to a grinding near-halt with the offers drying up — well, almost. In the latest (and a bizarre) twist of events, John’s very precious project, Parmanu: The Story Of Pokhran, which is the story of the nuclear tests conducted in 1998 by the Indian Army, is locked in a lethal legal battle with the film’s co-producers KriArj Entertainment. Initially, the film was scheduled to release on April 6 but was pushed to May 4. But now with the legal imbroglio, the film’s fate seems uncertain.
Apparently, John, who is also a producer of the project, has been in a conflict with KriArj for the longest time. Sources at KriArj complain of John’s “high-handed, arrogant and unreasonable” attitude, which has finally blown up.
On Sunday evening, in retaliation to John’s notice in trade papers calling off his deal with KriArj, the latter’s legal team issued a stringent statement preventing the actor from making any legal claims over the project.
Here are a few excerpts from KriArj’s statement: “In response to the trade notice issued by JA Entertainm-ent, please note that the said termination is illegal and invalid. Our rights in the film as a joint producer/presenter and owner of all rights are fully secured...
“JA Ent has till date not fulfilled its commitment of intimating us about the completion of the film and is fraudulently trying to delay the release of the film… We had all our plans of promoting the film and a wide release in place and were to kick-start the campaign shortly, for which there have been substantial expenses. JA Ent has repeatedly derailed the marketing campaign...
“After making substantial payments to them, JA Ent has kept making unreasonable demands for money from us… We have already instructed our attorneys who will be moving to the necessary authorities soon for seeking justice against the breaches committed by JA Ent and its promoter John Abraham.”
With Parmanu locked in a legal battle, John Abraham has much to worry about. There is no other project to fall back on except a thriller directed by Milap Jhaveri and produced by Nikhil Advani. However, although the film was supposed to go on floors in January, there has been no news of it actually taking off as yet.
A director who has worked with John, speaks in his defense: “There is so much screen presence in him to exploit. But he seems to be choosing the wrong films.”
