Bollywood’s heartthrob and the handsome hunk, John Abraham is India’s most famous model-turned-actor. John Abraham was born in Mumbai on 17th December, 1972. His father, Abraham John (architect) belongs to Aluva, Kerala and is a Marthomite Syrian Christian who married a Zoroastrian, Firoza Irani. John’s mother gave him the name ‘Farhan’. He has two siblings, Susy Mathew (sister) and Alan Abraham (brother). He has his own fashion brand ‘JA Clothes’ which sells his favorite apparel, jeans.
John did his primary schooling from Mumbai’s Bombay Scottish School and completed graduation from Jai Hind College in economics. He has done his MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. He was always active in sports and has won several awards too.
He used to work for media companies like Time & Space Media Entertainment Promotions Ltd and Enterprise Nexus and also appeared in a music video by Jazzy B. A turning point came when John won the Gladrags Manhunt in 1999 and went to the Philippines for the same where he bagged the first runner-up prize. He got various modeling offers from Singapore, New York, London, Hong Kong, etc. John was rated as the highest paid Indian Supermodel. He even took acting classes to become an actor.
His first break as a Bollywood actor was in Jism (2003) where he played a wayward lawyer opposite the very sexy, Bipasha Basu. The movie did well, but his dashing looks and muscle-toned body gave him an upper hand in the Bollywood industry. He went on to do various different genres like Saaya (2003), Paap (2004), Lakeer- Forbidden lines (2004).
The biggest turnover came into his life when he became the hot-shot villain, Kabir in the blockbuster, ‘Dhoom’ (2004) where he drove the super-speedy Hayabusa. The film was the 3rd highest grossing in the year 2004. John got his first Filmfare nomination in the negative role for the same movie. In the movie, ‘Garam Masala’, his teaming with Akshay Kumar was superb. He gave an amazing performance in Deepa Mehta’s film ‘Water’ (2006) which also was nominated in the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 2006. Not only acting, but John has also performed live in a rock show with actors like Kareena Kapoor, Zayed Khan and Salman Khan.
In the same year, he gave back-to-back performances in Zinda, Taxi No. 9211, Baabul and Kabul Express, which was highly acclaimed by the viewers. He also did a multi-starrer film, ‘Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute to Love’ which didn’t go well. He was then casted opposite Bipasha yet again in the film, ‘No Smoking’ (2007) and also did a movie about football, ‘Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal’. ‘Dostana’ (2008) gave him a lot of fame when he flaunted his body and looks, and his on-screen gay-love with Abhishek Bachchan was the talk of the town. In the year 2009, he was casted in the movie ‘New York’ under the Yash Raj banner opposite Katrina Kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh; he did exceptionally well.
He did two movies in 2010, ‘Aashayein’ and ‘Jhootha Hi Sahi’ which failed to impress the audiences at the box office and followed by that, he also did Force (2011), Desi Boyz (2011), and Housefull 2 (2012) and these movies saw an average growth at the box office. His movies like ‘Race 2’ (2013) and ‘Shootout at Wadala’ (2013) and ‘Madras Café (2013) were a big hit amongst the critics and at the box office.
After the bad break-up with his long-time girlfriend, Bipasha Basu, he decided to move on and hence, got married to Priya Runchal on 1st January, 2014. In 2016, he did ‘Rocky Handsome’ and ‘Dhishoom’. Dhishoom managed to come under the 100 Crore club. He has many more movies lined up. He is currently working in ‘Mumbai Saga’ opposite Vivek Oberoi and Huma Qureshi. John has also produced films like ‘Vicky Donor’ (2012) and ‘Madras Café’ (2013).
John is also a philanthropist and a social activist. He donated Rupees 1 Lakh in Mumbai’s Leelavati Hospital. He also participated in the Mumbai Marathon for United Way Worldwide and is a PETA activist as well.
We are looking forward to see him in many other films soon and wish him good luck in his future endeavours.