Photo:dnaindia

John Abraham, who plays police officer Sanjay Kumar in his next, 'Batla House', has left no stone unturned to get into the skin of his character. The role has been inspired by a real-life DCP (then ACP, Special Cell, Delhi Police), Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, who was involved in the controversial Batla House encounter of 2008.
To begin with, John spent a lot time with Sanjeev to understand his body language, mannerisms and how he gathered information. He even interacted with Sanjeev’s wife Shobhna, to lend an emotional touch to the character. Recalling his interactions with the couple, John says, “Sanjeev Kumar is shy and doesn’t speak much. During one of our meetings, Shobhna told me, ‘My husband doesn’t speak for more than five minutes’. We have used that line in the film. However, there’s a dichotomy in his character. You will suddenly see fire in his eyes when he talks about taking people down. It’s hard to believe that he can harm even an ant, but when he is out there, he’s a different person altogether.”

Talking about his prep, the actor says, “We have worked hard; we have held workshops and discussed characters at length. In fact, for one interrogation scene, I sat with my co-actor for almost three days, and helped him define his character. The process was complex and tough, but it was made to look simpler on screen to entertain people.”

Director Nikkhil Advani also spent time with Sanjeev Kumar to understand the character better. He shares, “Sanjeev is very quiet and cautious. I have to give him credit for allowing me to present alternate viewpoints on the story. When Ritesh (Shah, writer) showed me the script, I told him, ‘It’s superb, but I want to know everything else that you have not written’. From my end, I started reading everything available about the other viewpoints. I also told Sanjeev that I wanted to know everything that has happened in his personal life. For him, his country and duty come before everything else, including his personal life. He even told his wife, who asked for a divorce just hours before the encounter, that she is right in leaving him. He was willing to sacrifice everything for the country and the system, while the very system and people turned around and labelled him a murderer.”

The filmmaker also had certain nuances in mind, when he decided to cast John in the film. He shares, “When John came on board, I told Ritesh that we will have to make the action scenes grander, as that’s what is expected from him. At the same time, I needed to work with John to ensure that he scores in the scenes in which people don’t expect him to score. So, I had to balance both these aspects.”

'Batla House', produced by Bhushan Kumar, Divya Khosla Kumar, Krishan Kumar (T-Series), Monisha Advani, Madhu Bhojwani (Emmay Entertainment), John Abraham (JA Entertainment) and Sandeep Leyzell (Bake My Cake Films), releases on August 15.