Tailor-made for John Abraham!

Everyone's been raving about the way John Abraham has been looking in his all new avatar of Manya Surve in Sanjay Gupta's next. And we hear among all the people who helped put together his look of the dreaded former gangster for John, is none other than Manya's own tailor!

Sources say that apart from a lot of research that has gone into making the film, Gupta and the actor have drawn inspiration for his look from Baba Baboish, who stitched the gangster's clothes. Gupta says, "Baba still has his shop at Shivaji Park and Mahesh Manjrekar who is a common friend introduced us. His inputs went a long way in giving John the look that he has in the film."

Apparently Baba provided designed Kunal Rawal with small but significant details about the way Manya dressed wearing a round collar and flapwala shirts amongst the others and the costumes were styled accordingly.

The director adds, "I told John that he would have to wear Kolhapuri chappals, have a tika on his forehead and even put oil in his hair. Mahesh even helped in many aspects including the way John speaks in the film."

Picture perfect
Incidentally, since Manya was shot dead in 1982, all that John had as a reference point to build his character was a photograph of the gangster's dead body. The actor adds, "Then we got a passport picture and I also visited the places he used to frequent."

Digging out the details about the slain gangster took the actor through different parts of the city. "At Khira Nagar, we met a man who was just a boy during Manya's times. Once Manya broke into his house thinking it to be a cop's residence but found the boy's family there instead. He spoke to the boy's mother with great respect," adds John.

Family ties
The actor also met the gangster's nephews to learn more about him including the way he would dress and his body language. Playing such a larger-than-life character is never easy and John echoes the sentiment. "It has been 10 years in the industry for me but it feels like this is my re-launch. I am excited like never before," signs off the actor.