John Abraham didn’t speak with director after Satyamav Jayate 2 flopped

John Abraham had high expectations on his 2021 release Satyamev Jayate 2, but the film tanked at the box office. In a new interview with Siddharth Kannan, Satyameva Jayate 2 director Milap Zaveri opened up about the reasons that contributed to the film’s failure at the box office and revealed that John was ‘upset’ after the film’s release and did not speak with him for about 2-3 months. (Also read: John Abraham loses cool after his films are called repetitive at Vedaa trailer launch: ‘Can I call out idiots?’ Watch)
During the chat, Milap said, “There was a period of about two to three months when he wasn’t communicating. I reached out through phone calls and messages, and he eventually replied saying, ‘Milap, I’m very sad.’ He didn’t say he was upset with me; he said he was sad because he had a lot riding on this film, he was very excited, and he was upset that it didn’t work out. He went into a shell. But later, we talked. I met John, and we hugged it out. John told me, ‘I will do a film with you. I love you; I believe in you as a director. When a great script comes, I will work with you.’”
He went on to add that John had voiced his opinion on certain points during the shoot of the film where he felt that part was being ‘overdone’. Milap said, “Dil uska bhi toota tha ki film nahi chali. I felt that I let him down. He trusted me blindly, sab kiya usne. Kuch kuch pal the jaha woh khush nahi tha. Usko laga main jayada over the top jaa raha hoon. Main kuch jyada hi filmy cheezein kar raha hoon. But usne sab kuch kiya (There were parts where he was not happy and thought that I was doing it over the top and making it too much filmy. But he did all of that with my convincing).”
Milap said that the film had a number of issues, related to its release date being pushed around just before the second wave of COVID-19 hit, the lack of a good antagonist, and John’s triple role. He also shared that the film felt like it had shown an image that John could do anything rather than telling a proper story.
John’s last release was Vedaa, which also starred Sharvari. The Nikkhil Advani-directorial received positive reviews upon release but underperformed at the box office.