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A new experience

Supported by crutches and his bodyguards, John Abraham limps. “I was hurt during the shooting of Hook Ya Crook,” he says, putting the crutches aside as he sits down. John’s New York was released last week to critical response. In this film directed by Kabir Khan — John’s second with Kabir after Kabul Express — he plays Sameer, an NRI Muslim in New York, whose equations with his friend and beloved Maya (Karina Kaif) change after he is detained following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

To play a Muslim boy, if he read the Quran, he also made efforts to see what went wrong in New York after the attack on the Twin Towers. “The most important thing that upsets you is that you feel like a prisoner, not only because you are a Muslim but also because you have inherited brown skin. The attacks may have begun on Muslims post 9/11, but they spread to Sri Lankans, Pakistanis and Africans. Reading the private research notes or meeting people whose families underwent immense mental torture during these times made me restless.”

Shooting for the much-talked-about nude scene apart from the water boarding torture scene made him realise how brown-skinned people live on the edge after the attacks on the Twin Towers. “I used to go to bed with a heavy heart and wasn’t able to eat properly.

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