The film is scheduled to take the film on the floors on June 1
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 9, 2018)

After wrapping up Abhishek Sharma’s Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran with Diana Penty, which is based on the nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by the Indian Army at Pokhran in 1998, John Abraham recently started shooting for Milap Zaveri’s dark, action-packed thriller in Mumbai that revolves around a cop and a murderer and also features Manoj Bajpayee and Aisha Sharma. Mirror has now learnt that the 45-year-old actor has given his nod to Robbie Grewal’s Romeo Akbar Walter (RAW) and is scheduled to start shooting for the film from June 1.

“We are excited to have John on board this film with us. The process began when we were brainstorming on whom to cast for the protagonist’s part and thought that John would fit the bill perfectly. He really liked the script and gave his nod on the same day as the narration. We have revisited the script of this espionage-drama which is set in the 1970s and we can’t wait to take it on the floors,” confirms Ajay Kapoor who is producing the spy-thriller with Dheeraj Wadhwan, Vanessa Walia and Gary Grewal.

The film will be shot in a start-to-finish 60-day schedule in Nepal, Gujarat, Srinagar and Delhi. Meanwhile, the makers have been doing an extensive recce for the past few months.

“Robbie has worked extensively as an ad filmmaker and has made three films earlier (Samay: When Time Strikes, MP3: Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar and Aloo Chaat). He has also written the script of our John-starrer and is working closely with the actor on the project. The duo gets along really well and keep bouncing ideas off each other. Robbie will start readings and workshops with John once he completes the shooting for Milap’s film,” informs Ajay, while refusing to divulge further details of the prep.

Meanwhile, Robbie adds that the film’s team has roped in National Award-winning makeup artist Vikram Gaikwad while Amera Pulwani has been entrusted with costume-designing. “John will sport a completely different look and will have multiple avatars in the film,” the director informs.

Last year, it was announced that Sushant Singh Rajput had been roped in to play the leading man in the film and was reportedly gearing up to start prep. Prod the filmmaker on what went wrong and Ajay says, “Nothing went wrong except that the dates Sushant had given us were clashing with another film so we decided to part ways amicably. Obviously one feels bad as we had finished most of the prep and were ready to roll. But everything is sorted now, Sushant is like a brother.”