Actor Imran Khan has shared in a recent interview that he was set to make his comeback in Abbas Tyrewala’s spy thriller. However, the project has been put on the back burner, and it might be shelved forever. The actor, who has worked in films like ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ and ‘Delhi Belly’, said that he is actually glad that the project might not release.
Speaking to Film Companion, Imran Khan shared details about the project and said, “We started talking about it in July of last year. Abbas Tyrewala called me up out of the blue. I was in San Francisco for a holiday, and he told me that he has written this amazing thing. It was a cool story, and he asked me to do it together. The project was in early development at Hotstar. This was before the acquisition. The latter part of last year, Hotstar got amalgamated with Jio and somewhere within all of this, that project felt wayside.”
He then added, “All things said and doneâæthat thing fell into limbo and it doesn’t look like it will be resurrected. I am glad that that thing ended up not coming together.” Reasoning it, he said, “I don’t want to play a character who solves problems with a gun.”
Violence is being celebrated in cinema, not just in India but globally, something that Imran is not happy about. “I have sense where cinema is going globally. There is a glamorisation, fetishisation and sexualisation of violence that makes me uncomfortable. I have grown watching action cinema. My heroes were Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Indiana Jones. But there is a way to portray violence and this is not a morality thing. Violence and action are a language within cinema, but when we communicate it and portray it in films, there is a way to do it, where you feel the weight of it,” he commented.
Khan added, “We have started making films where heroes will just go in and go boom and boom. They make it cool and sexy and that makes me uncomfortable.”
Larger-than-life action films have found a niche in India cinema. Some of the massive blockbusters of Indian cinema, including ‘KGF’ franchise, ‘Pushpa’ or ‘Animal’ in Hindi, have been criticised for the glorification of violence.