Refuting rumours that Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa secretly invested in upcoming political spy-thriller Madras Cafe, John Abraham has said that this wasn't true.

"It's not true that Rajapaksa secretly financed my film. Viacom 18 Motion Pictures is the producer of my film. They would feel bad about these rumours and therefore I'm clarifying again that it has not been secretly financed by anyone other than my producers," John told reporters here.

He was speaking at a promotional event of "Madras Cafe", which is being dubbed in Tamil with the same name.

The Tamil version will release simultaneously with its Hindi version on Aug 23.

"We have been very logical about our budget. We have kept the budget very low. We have not been extravagant with the budget. Our agenda was to tell a story and we have concentrated on only that," he said.

Madras Cafe, based on true events about a covert operation conducted in Sri Lanka in the late 1990s, is directed by Shoojit Sircar. The film also features Nargis Fakhri, Prosenjit Chaterjee and Rashi Khanna in important roles.