Mumbai, Mar 5 (IANS): Actor-producer John Abraham, who is likely to take action in Bollywood to an altogether new level with his film "Rocky Handsome", says that the country is missing "real action heroes" of the caliber of Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

"We really wanted to take action to the next level. What the country was missing was real action heroes... If you see internationally, the best action heroes are Stallone, Bruce Willis, Schwarzenegger, Dwayne Johnson The Rock," John said at the trailer launch of "Rocky Handsome" here.

"It's not as much about the action, but it is about the attitude, and that's what we tried to maintain in the film," he added.

The trailer of "Rocky Handsome" sees John in an intense action avatar to save the life of a young girl. He is seen in an array of action sequences with guns and knives while also showcasing his toned physique.

About the kind of preparation required for the film, John said: "I went off to Thailand for a little less than a month to train, especially the knife action that you see. Even if the knives are blunt, they really hurt. I remember when I was going for a shower in the evening, I used to remember the action in the day, because the whole body was black and blue during training".

However, the "Welcome Back" actor said that the hard work paid off because the director of "Rocky Handsome" wanted to achieve realism with the action scenes.

Directed by Nishikant Kamat, "Rocky Handsome" features John with Shruti Hassan in the lead. John also took training for martial arts in Thailand for the action-packed film.