John Abraham

Biography

John Abraham (born 17 December 1972) is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi films. He is a recipient of one National Film Award along with four Filmfare Awards nominations. Abraham has appeared in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list since 2017. After a modelling career, Abraham made his acting debut with the erotic thriller film Jism (2003), a sleeper hit. In the same year, he appeared in the supernatural romantic thriller film Saaya and crime thriller film Paap. He rose to prominence with the action film Dhoom (2004) and the comedies Garam Masala (2005), Taxi No. 9211 (2006), and Dostana (2008). He then starred in the critically acclaimed dramas Water (2005), Kabul Express (2006) and New York (2009), the last of which also turned out to be a commercial success. Despite several commercial failures in the subsequent decade, Abraham achieved success with the 2013 action thrillers Race 2 and drama Madras Cafe; along with the ensemble comedies Housefull 2 (2012) and Welcome Back (2015). Abraham then had commercial successes with the action dramas Dishoom (2016), Parmanu (2018), Satyameva Jayate (2018), Batla House (2019) and Pathaan (2023). Abraham ventured into film production under his banner J.A. Entertainment with Vicky Donor (2012), which won him the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. He has since produced several of his films, and also wrote the story of Attack: Part 1 (2022). Outside of his film career, he is the co-owner of the Indian Super League football team NorthEast United FC, and the European T20 Premier League cricket team Rotterdam Dockers. He is also a vegetarian bodybuilder and is an advocate for animal rights.

== Early life and family == Abraham was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, on 17 December 1972 into a family of mixed religious and ethnic heritage. His father is a Malayali Syrian Christian from Kerala and his mother is an Irani Zoroastrian, who has many relatives living in Iran. Abraham's Zoroastrian name is "Farhan", but he was baptised with the name "John." He has a younger brother named Alan Abraham. He considers himself a spiritual person but does not follow any particular religion. Abraham grew up in Mumbai and studied at the Bombay Scottish School there. He attended Jai Hind College, University of Mumbai, and then got an MBA degree from NMIMS, Mumbai. His cousin Susy Matthew is an author and has written novels like In a Bubble of Time.

== Career ==

=== Modelling career and acting debut (1999–2003) === Abraham started his modelling career appearing in the music video of the song 'Jhanjar' of Hans Raj Hans and 'Surma' by Punjabi singer Jazzy B. He then joined the media firm and Time & Space Media Entertainment Promotions Ltd., which however got closed because of financial crisis. Later, he worked for Enterprises-Nexus as a media planner. In 1999, he won the Gladrags Manhunt Contest and went to the Philippines for Manhunt International, where he won second place. He later modelled in Hong Kong, London and New York City, and appeared in a number of commercial advertisements and other music videos for singers including Pankaj Udhas, Hans Raj Hans and Babul Supriyo. To improve his acting skills, Abraham joined Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting Institute and completed an acting course while juggling modelling assignments. Considered "the top model of India before he ventured into films", Abraham made his acting debut with Jism in 2003, an erotic thriller film that, according to Box Office India, was "Hit" grossing 1,32,50,000 Rs. He portrayed the role of Kabir Lal, a poor, alcoholic and wayward lawyer who falls in love with Sonia Khanna (played by Bipasha Basu), a wife of a travelling millionaire, who plots to kill her own husband with the company of Kabir. The film met with mixed to positive reviews. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama commented: "Supermodel John Abraham makes a confident debut. The actor rises beyond his looks and registers a strong impact with his performance, more so towards the second half. His dashing looks and excellent physique only add to his persona". In the same year, Abraham appeared in Anurag Basu's horror paranormal romance film Saaya alongside Tara Sharma and Mahima Chaudhry. The film garnered mixed to negative reviews and underperformed at the box office. Taran Adarsh wrote: "Saaya clearly belongs to John. No two opinions on that! Enacting a very difficult role, the newcomer actually performs like a veteran and delivers a performance that's bound to win him nominations in the awards categories. His growth as an actor is tremendous!" In 2003, he appeared in Pooja Bhatt's directorial debut film Paap alongside Udita Goswami. He portrayed the role of Shiven, a police officer, who falls for a Buddhist girl, Kaaya. The film underperformed at the box office, receiving mixed reviews, and also was premiered at the Kara Film Festival. That same year, he appeared in Ahmed Khan's film Lakeer – Forbidden Lines, co-starring Nauheed Cyrusi with other stars such as Sunny Deol, Sunil Shetty and Sohail Khan, which also underperformed at the box office.

=== Breakthrough (2004–2009) ===

In 2004, Abraham played Kabir, the main antagonist in Dhoom, an action film directed by Sanjay Gadhvi, and produced by Yash Raj Films, multi-starring Abhishek Bachchan, Esha Deol, Uday Chopra and Rimi Sen. The film was the third highest-grossing film of the year, which gained him a Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role nomination. In 2005, he starred in the action thrillers Elaan and Karam, both of which failed at the box office. He followed with the supernatural thriller Kaal and the comedy Garam Masala, both of which did well at the box office. Later that year, he had a role in Water, which portrayed the tragic fate of Hindu widows in British India of the 1930s. The film was written and directed by independent Canadian film-maker Deepa Mehta. It was popular internationally, and was nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Academy Awards. Abraham attended the ceremony along with the film's crew and makers but the film lost to Germany's The Lives of Others. In the summer of 2006, Abraham performed at the "Rockstars Concert" along with fellow Bollywood actors Salman Khan, Zayed Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Esha Deol, Shahid Kapoor and Mallika Sherawat. In that same year, he starred in the films Zinda, Taxi No. 9211, Baabul and Kabul Express. Among these Taxi No. 9211 and Kabul Express were substantially successful. Abraham's performance in Taxi No. 9211 was praised by critics, noting that his performances to be maturing with each new film. Nikhil Advani's multi-starrer Salaam-e-Ishq was Abraham's first release in 2007. The movie failed to do well at the Indian box office, though it did well in the overseas markets. His last two 2007 releases included the thriller No Smoking, and the sports film Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, which emerged as a commercial failure at the box office. In 2008, Abraham starred alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra in Dostana, his only release that year. Produced by Dharma Productions, the film was a financial success with worldwide revenues of over ₹860 million (US$9 million). His only release of 2009 was a production by Yash Raj Films, New York. Costarring Katrina Kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh, the film follows the lives of three friends when one of them is wrongly detained after 9/11. New York performed well at the box office and received favourable reviews.

=== Comedies and focus on action films (2010–2019) ===

In 2010, he was seen in the films Aashayein and Jhootha Hi Sahi. Both of the films turned out to be box office failures. Later on, Abraham appeared in the films Force (2011), Desi Boyz (2011) and Housefull 2 (2012). Force collected ₹347.2 million (US$3.6 million) in India and was declared "Above Average" by Box Office India. Housefull 2 grossed ₹1,140 million (US$12 million) in India. His first film of 2013 was the multi-starrer Race 2, an action thriller that served as a sequel to Race (2008). The film received predominantly negative reviews, but grossed a successful total of ₹1.62 billion (US$17 million). The coming-of-age romantic comedy I, Me Aur Main, underperformed at the box office and received unfavorable reviews. His next release was Shootout at Wadala, in which he portrayed the role of a gangster Manya Surve, which gained mixed to positive reviews. Commercially, the film performed moderately well. Then his movie Madras Cafe, which was also a second movie for him as a producer, garnered much critical acclaim. His next release was Welcome Back, which was successful at the box office, earning ₹168.76 crore (US$18 million) worldwide.