Actor John Abraham and filmmaker Milap Zaveri’s relationship turned sour after their 2021 film Satyamev Jayate 2 failed at the box office. In a recent interview, Zaveri recalled how John had stopped talking to her and responding to her messages after the failure of the film. The filmmaker also admitted that he felt he let John down by not heeding his advice about avoiding overly dramatic elements in the film.

Speaking to YouTuber Siddharth Kannan, Zaveri shared, “To be honest, there was a period of about two to three months when he (John) was not communicating. I reached out to him through phone calls and messages and he finally replied, saying, ‘Milan, I’m so sorry.’ He didn’t say he was angry with me; He said he was sad because he had to do a lot of work in this film, he was very excited and he was upset that it didn’t work.”

Describing the period of silence between them, Zaveri said, “He went into a shell for a while, but later we talked. I met John, and we hugged him.” She stressed that their reconciliation was important, noting that John expressed his continued support, saying, “I would do a movie with you. I love you; I trust you as a director. When a good script comes I will work with you.

Despite this assurance, Zaveri admitted that something had changed. “Obviously, something was broken. Somehow, both of us were heartbroken because the film was not successful,” he admitted. The filmmaker expressed regret at disappointing John, emphasizing the trust placed in him by Abraham, saying: “He trusted me blindly. Whatever I told him to do, he did it. Hats off to him for this.”

Zaveri also reflected on the challenges he faced during production and revealed that there were moments when John was not entirely happy with the direction of the film. “They thought I was going too far, making it too cinematic. But he did everything,” Zaveri said.

However, Zaveri also had creative differences with Satyamev Jayate 2 producer Nikhil Advani.

He shared, “For some reason, during that time, Emme Entertainment, whatever project I was presenting to them, was not happening for some reason. And in a way, I love Nikhil Advani and he is very I respect him, but Nikhil and I are different types of people, right? Nikhil believes in a certain kind of cinema, whereas as long as my cinema was successful, everything was fine. At work, I automatically felt like I was the worst person in the company.”

after satyamev jayate 2 failed In order to get people to come to the theatres, Zaveri recalled that he was made to feel that he had brought about a disaster. “This was told to me very clearly, and it is quite reasonable. Maybe when I became successful, I behaved poorly or showed overconfidence. At that time, I would not have listened to their advice,” he said.

Satyamev Jayate 2, also starring Divya Khosla, was produced by Nikhil Advani’s Emma Entertainment.