‘He plays a politician in a film and you find out he’s gay and…’ – Firstpost

‘Tehran’ actor John Abraham has praised Malayalam veteran and legend Mammootty in an interview recently. In an interview with The Indian Express, the actor said, “That industry is very brave. So, I think as of today, the best films in the country come from the Malayalam film industry. If you ask who my favourite actor is, I would say Mohanlal by light years. I love Meryl Streep also.”

Abraham added, “You look at Mammootty playing a politician and you find out in the film that he is gay. I mean, it’s brave for that man to do a film like that.”

On Tehran’s OTT release

Tehran has been awaiting its release since 2023. It finally releases on Zee5 during the Independence Day weekend. And in an interview with Bollywood Hungama, the actor broke his silence on the same.

John revealed, “It’s very disheartening. I’m not going to mince my words on it, but it breaks your heart, especially for an actor who always wants to be seen on the big screen. But we all made a very informed decision on that. And the decision was that because of the conflicts and controversies that are happening around internationally.”

The actor added, “Theatres were a little wary of picking up a film that had Iran and Israel in it. We had a choice of either showing the film somewhere or not showing it at all.”

On the film’s limited audience

Zee5 has been gracious and told us they would be our platform. But it also breaks your heart as an actor who only wants to be seen on the big screen. I treat this more like a foreign film in a way. When you will see the film, you will understand that why it will not resonate with a larger audience. It has got a lot of Farsi in it and a lot of Hebrew in it. It’s only 1 hour and 50 minutes long. It’s got a lot of foreign language in it.