Nikkhil Advani on failure of Salaam-E-Ishq: John Abraham and I did not talk for 20 years

Nikkhil Advani and John Abraham

John Abraham and director Nikkhil Advani's film 'Vedaa' hit the theatres this Independence Day. They two have collaborated earlier as well. Their first collaboration was for the 2007 film 'Salaam-E-Ishq'. The film had a huge ensemble cast including Vidya Balan, Priyanka Chopra, Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Ayesh Takia, Govinda, Akshaye Khanna. The film had six love stories and one of the stories starred John Abraham and Vidya Balan opposite each other. However, the film tanked at the box office and it led to John and Nikkhil not talking to each other for 20 years.

Talking to Siddharth Kannan, Nikkhil Advani spoke about how the failure of 'Salaam-E-Ishq' impacted him. "John and I hardly met after Salaam-E-Ishq. It was only after Satyameva Jayate where we rekindled our friendship. In between, he was doing his thing and I was doing my thing and we didn't actually connect."

Satyameva Jayate was produced by Nikkhil Advani and was a hit. It's sequel released in 2021. However, it failed to impress. Despite that, Nikkhil and John worked together in Batla House which was directed by the filmmaker. Nikkhil said that he and John share a warm friendship now. "There is a huge amount of comfort working with him, sitting with him," he said.

Nikkhil further shared that the failure of Salaam-E-Ishq was difficult to accept. He shut himself in his Alibaug home and did not speak to anyone including his daughter. "I ran away from Mumbai and I went to Alibaug. I just went to my bungalow, I just shut everything. I didn't speak to anyone, not even to my daughter," he said.

When asked about how John reacted to the failure of Salaam-E-Ishq, Nikkhil said, "We didn't talk for 20 years (laughs). After Salaam-E-Ishq, I chose not to talk to anybody."

Meanwhile, talking about Vedaa, the film stars John Abraham and Sharvari. Sharing his feelings, Nikkhil Advani had earlier said, "It took me and Aseem Arrora six years to work out a script based on two horrific incidents, a script that would have the same impact that, Batla House, my previous collaboration with John Abraham had. There were days when Sharvari had to really keep herself from breaking down when we started shooting. As a young girl, she had to reach places that were very uncomfortable. "