Mumbai, Sep 28 (IANS): Bollywood heartthrob John Abraham hopes that his upcoming film "Force" helps him get recognition as an action hero but at the same time he is not ready to give up his romantic image on screen.

"Action does not mean that we leave the romantic image. 'Force' has a lot of action backed by very strong emotions. I think it's a beautiful romantic-action film. I don't want to remove the tag of a romantic hero and I think it is always going to be with me," John told reporters here.

Directed by Nishikant Kamat, "Force" is a remake of Gautham Menon's 2003 Tamil film "Kaakha Kaakha" and John will be seen romancing Genelia D'Souza in it.

John, 38, is confident that "Force" will remind audiences of the 1990s actioners like "Ghatak" and "Ghayal".

"We just feel that this film has raw, real action... last time you saw real action was probably when Sunny Deol used to do 'Ghatak', 'Arjun Pandit' and 'Dacait'. I think the masses like hard-hitting action... that when you punch someone, he is completely injured," he added.

Ajay Devgn's "Singham" was an out and out action drama and raked in moolah at the box office and John is all praise for the actor.

"I am very happy that Ajay Devgn's movie 'Singham' has worked well because Ajay truly deserves it. If you have seen the movie 'Aakrosh', I think Ajay Devgn's action in 'Aakrosh' is superlative. He is a brilliant action hero," he said.