The promos of the film look impressive, and the item numbers are the talk of the town. And going by the trailers, it looks like Shootout At Wadala is a career defining role for John Abraham, who plays gangster Manya Surve in the Sanjay Gupta directed film.

To get under the skin of gangster. who was shot down by Mumbai police in their first official encounter in 1982, the actor says he lived the gangster’s life for over a year, and explains why he is drawn more towards grey characters.

"I drew a lot of inspiration out of him. In a way, I lived his life, his character for at least one-and-a-half year to play this," Abraham said to IANS

"When you see the film, you will find that I am not John Abraham, I am Manya Surve," he added.

Sharing his fascination for negative characters, Abraham said: "Whenever I do negative roles, the films work. Last time I did a positive role, and the film did not work. I love negative roles."

"Normal is boring... Anyone can play a hero, to play negative has an edge," added Abraham, who portrayed a baddie in Zinda, Dhoom and Race 2.

Produced by Ekta Kapoor, Shootout At Wadala also stars Anil Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, Manoj Bajpayee, Kangana Ranaut and Mahesh Manjrekar. It releases on 1 May.