John Abraham joins Saif Ali Khan in cast of Nikkhil Advani's next, based on Batla House encounter

John Abraham has been roped in for director Nikkhil Advani’s next film which will be based on the real life encounter at Batla House. Abraham will portray the role of DCP Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, who has won eight President Gallantry Awards. The film goes to floor in September 2018, reports  Mumbai Mirror which added that Advani wants to wrap up the shoot in 50 days. The movie will be shot in Delhi, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mumbai and Nepal. Abraham said that he was looking forward to playing the role. He said, “We have yet to meet but I’ve been devouring all the material on him, and from what I’ve read, he seems like a humble man with an interesting back story.” On working with Advani, he said, “D-Day has put him in a different space and after Madras Café and Parmanu, I understand that space too…. The biggest challenge will be to find the balance between duty and country, that fine line Sanjeev Kumar Yadav walk so perfectly and project it on screen.” [caption id=“attachment_3408474” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] John Abraham. Image from Facebook[/caption] In March, Advani had said that he had acquired all the necessary permissions for his film. The encounter occurred in September 2008 against Indian Mujahideen terrorists in the Batla House, a locality in Jamia Nagar in Delhi. As per reports, two suspected terrorists were gunned down and two other suspects were arrested while one accused escaped that day. “We have touched upon real life incidents earlier with films like Lucknow Central and Airlift. We have been doing research on the subject of Batla House for four years, we have NOC from everybody.” Advani had told PTI. “As a production house, we make sure that we do a thorough research so the director has all the things ready.” he had added. The film already has Saif Ali Khan portraying the role of encounter specialist and Delhi Police officer Mohan Chand Sharma, who led the police action, and was shot dead during the incident. With inputs from PTI.