Subhash K Jha (DNA; February 18, 2015)

What’s with these bone-crunching actioners on Gandhi Jayanti? In 2013, it was the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Besharam. In 2014, it was Hrithik Roshan’s Bang Bang. Now for Gandhi Jayanti 2015, it’s the stylish John Abraham action film Rocky Handsome. Laughs the director Nishikant Kamat, “I don’t know if Gandhiji would approve. But we’ve tried to make a film that takes the action genre in Hindi to another level.”

John, who is keen to be a new kind of action hero, attended a 12-day action workshop in Bangkok to get the stunts right. Says Kamat, “I’ve done one kind of action with John in Force. Now we’re doing another kind in Rocky Handsome. Here the action will be in a very authentic space. Audiences will actually wince when a blow is dealt.”

Kamat is a highly original creator yet he continues to be saddled with remakes. Laughs the director, “I admit Rocky Handsome is a remake of a Korean film, but so different from the original. Likewise, when I remade Force with John, I completely re-wrote the script. Somewhere, I feel I become attached to a film and then want to give it my own interpretation.”