Goal co-stars Bipasha Basu, Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani and was shot entirely in Britain. In it, Abraham plays Sunny Bhasin, a UK-born Indian who plays for a Southall football club.

Abraham agrees it is difficult for a Bollywood actor to keep doing films that are off the beaten track, but is quick to add that resistance to such a strategy within the industry is weakening appreciably.

"A new approach to film-making has taken roots in the Mumbai industry," he says

"How else do you explain an actor with a name and face like mine being so openly accepted these days?"

"I do the kind of films that I believe in," he says. "Some people in the industry might feel that I am sailing against the tide and will have to pay for it. They were skeptical about my ability to pull off the role in Water. I am now also doing Deepa Mehta's next film, Exclusion, with Amitabh Bachchan."

He believes the gap between commercial and non- mainstream cinema is bound to get narrower by the year.

"So-called small films today come out with 150 prints while a Yash Chopra film releases with 1,000 prints. But a day will come when you will see 400 prints of offbeat films being released against 800 prints of a Yashraj film. The industry is changing," Abraham says.

Referring to Goal, he says: "It's a commercially oriented film but completely realistic. It addresses issues like racism, cultural assimilation and social assertion in a way that is bound to have international appeal. It's about the journey of a man who travels from playing for a British club to turning out for a South Asian team to assert his identity - it's a story of inspiration, glory and victory."

Abraham, supposedly, performed every single soccer stunt in Goal himself, from transferring the ball from his feet to under his neck to attempting difficult bicycle kicks.

"I have done with football here what I did with bikes in Dhoom. Every single move in the film is authentic. Of course, it took me lots of hard practice."

Excerpts of an interview:

You seem to have been out of circulation for so long.
That was by choice. I would rather be seen than heard. I've always believed in working quietly and not making tall claims. I always said roles abroad would happen when they happen. At the end of the day Bollywood is my home. I'm damn lucky to be getting all these opportunities. The film industry has been very kind to me. I love the movies!

In Deepa Mehta's Luna you're cast in a mainstream Hollywood film as a mainstream hero.
Deepa has shown a lot of faith in me. Talks were on for Luna. But everything came together formally at Cannes. I'm very delighted my co-star is Rachel Weisz. What a performance she gave in The Constant Gardner. Mine is a beautifully etched role in Luna. I play an activist. The heartening thing is my nationality isn't even mentioned. And my character's name isn't Indian. I met Julia Hill on whose life Luna will be based. She was amazing. We think of activists as mature and boring. Julia is a fun 27-year-old, funky yet passionate about her work.