John Abraham born as Farhan Abraham to Malayali Christian father and Parsi Gujarati mother on December 17, 1972 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. He is an Indian film actor who appears in Hindi Bollywood movies and is a former model.
After modeling for numerous advertisements and popular companies, Abraham made his film debut with Jism (2003). The film was a decent hit at the box–office and got him nominated for the Filmfare Best Debut Award . In his first blockbuster hit, Dhoom (2004), he played an anti-hero. He bagged another Filmfare nomination for his negative roles in this movie and Zinda (2006). He received critical acclaim and appreciation worldwide for his movie Water (2005). In the year 2007, he was nominated under the category of Best Supporting Actor at Filmfare. His movies brought him national and international critical acclaim. He received the 'Rajiv Gandhi Award' for his contribution to Bollywood in 2006. Further, he was awarded for his contribution to Indian cinema in 2007 by the 'Giant International Awards'.
Early life
Abraham's Parsi name is “Farhan” to which his father, being a catholic, added “ Abraham” as a respect for the Bible and named him “John“. He has one younger brother, Alan . Abraham first went to the Bombay Scottish School and later to Jai Hind College, where he completed his B.A. (Honors) in economics. He was an avid sportsman, captaining the college football team. He earned his MMS degree from Mumbai Educational Trust.
Career
Abraham started his career with the media firm Time & Space Media Entertainment Promotions Ltd ., which, however, closed down due to financial problems. Later, he worked for Enterprises- href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ title="Nexus">Nexus as a media planner.
Modeling
In 1999, he won the Gladrags Manhunt Contest and went to Singapore for Manhunt International , where he won second place. Following this, he appeared in a number of commercial advertisements and in music videos
for singers like Pankaj Udhas, Hans Raj Hans and Babul Supriyo. To further improve his acting skills, Abraham joined Kishore Namit Kapoor acting lab and successfully completed a course on acting while juggling modelling assignments.
Acting
Early acting career
Abraham made his acting debut in 2003 with the controversial film Jism, a thriller with him and Bipasha Basu in lead. The film was a surprise box office success and his work was noticed widely. It was while making of this film that John and Basu started dating each other. Later the same year came the paranormal thriller Saaya (2003) the film was a commercial and critical failure. It was followed by a bunch of failures like Pooja Bhatt's directorial debut Paap (2004) and Ahmed Khan's Sunny Deol starrer Lakeer (2004).
Breakthrough
After having many box office failures John's first blockbuster hit came with the movieDhoom in 2004 where he played the role of the villain 'Kabir', the film was a big commercial success and was one of the highest grossers of the year.
In 2005 he starred in the supernatural thriller Kaal and the comedy Garam Masala both of which did well at the box office. Later that year he had a major role in the critically acclaimed film Water, which portrayed the tragic fate of Hindu widows in British India. The film was written and directed by independent Canadian film-maker Deepa Mehta . The film was popular overseas, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Academy Awards, which exposed John to a more international audience.
In the summer of 2006, he performed at the "Rockstars Concert" along with fellow Bollywood stars Salman Khan, Zayed Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Esha Deol, Shahid Kapoor and Mallika Sherawat. In the same year, he starred in the films Zinda, Taxi No 9211, Baabul and Kabul Express (2006). Among these Taxi No 9211 and Kabul Express were substantially successful.
Nikhil Advani's multi-starrer Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love was Abraham's first release in 2007. The movie failed to do well at the Indian box office, but was successful in the overseas market. His last two 2007 releases were the offbeat thriller No Smoking and the sports film Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal .
In 2008 he had only one release, Dostana. The film was one of the highest Bollywood grossers of 2008.
Producer
In 2009 John has turned to production by co-producing 1-800-Love along with Abbas Tyrewala.
Media
Abraham with girlfriend Bipasha Basu at the launch of the Filmfare magazine (2007)
Apart from his movie commitments, John is also the brand ambassador for Castrol Power 1, Yamaha Marque and has also endorsed Wrangler, Clinic All Clear, Fastrack eye gear and Samsung cell phones.
Personal life
Abraham has been dating actress Bipasha Basu since 2002. The couple is considered a Super-Couple in India.
John has his own fashion line: his brand "JA" clothes, which features primarily his favorite article of clothing, jeans.
Abraham also associates himself deeply in the social causes and urges youngsters also to join hands in this humanity man. He works for social causes like he works for PETA. He has his own brigade called John's brigade for Habitat for Humanity, Habitat For Humanity is a jimmy Carter foundation project.
He was also associated with the famous Lilavati hospital of Mumbai where he donated a check of 10 lakhs towards the hospital funds.
In 2008, John became the first Indian ever to feature in the '25 Sexiest Men' list compiled by E! News and was ranked as the 7th sexiest man in the world. In the same year, UK magazine Eastern Eye named Abraham the "Sexiest Man In Asia".
In January 2009, John took his charitable activities to a new level and led a group of Indian celebrities in the Mumbai Marathon, an event to benefit the United Way.
During the latter part of January 2009, John Abraham injured his leg badly while shooting for David Dhawan’s upcoming flick, Hook Ya Crook. He is also roped in the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film Chenab Gandhi.
