Monday, November 26, 2007

John Abraham


Biography

John Abraham(born December 17, 1972 in Mumbai, India), is a former model turned Bollywood actor.

John Abraham's Iranian name is Farhan but he was born and baptised as John. He has one younger brother, Alan. Abraham's father is a Syro Malabar Catholic architect, from Alwaye, Kerala in India. His mother, Phiroza Irani, is part of Bombay's Parsi community.

Abraham's parents eloped, and they were estranged from their respective parents until the birth of their first child, John.

Abraham attended Bombay Scottish School and later Jai Hind College.He was an avid sprinter and was a captain of football association. He later earned a M.B.A degree from MET.

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-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. To further hone his acting skills, John Abraham joined Kishore Namit Kapoor acting lab and successfully completed a course on acting while juggling modelling assignments.

Acting

John Abraham made his film debut in 2003 with the controversal film Jism. The film did well, and his work was widely noticed. Later in the same year came the paranormal Saaya (2003) and the romantic Paap (2003); neither of which did particularly well at the Indian box-office. John's first blockbuster hit came with the movie Dhoom in 2004 where he played the role of the villain 'Kabir'. Other movies such as Kaal and Garam Masala followed in 2005.

In 2005, he had a major role in Water, which portrayed the tragic fate of Hindu widows in colonial India (See 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 2006, he starred in the films Taxi No 9211, Baabul and Kabul Express (2006). Among these only Baabul was substantially successful, particularly in the overseas market.

Nikhil Advani's multi-starrer, Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love was Abraham's first release in 2007. The move failed to do well at the Indian box office, but was successful in the overseas market.

John is playing an environmentalist activist in Deepa Mehta's new film Luna (currently under production) starring Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz and Chris Cooper.

Apart from his movie commitments, John is also the brand ambassador for Castrol Power 1 and for the Yamaha Marque.

Personal life


Abraham is currently dating actress Bipasha Basu, They have been dating since 2002.

Filmography

Actor:

In Production
2000s

1. Exclusion (2008) (pre-production) (attached)
2. Little Zizou (2008) (post-production) .... Arjun

3. Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal (2007) .... Sunny Bhasin
4. No Smoking (2007) .... K
5. Hattrick (2007) .... Wicket Bacha music video
6. Salaam-E-Ishq (2007) .... Ashutosh Raina
7. Is Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon (2007)
8. Baabul (2006) .... Rajat
9. Kabul Express (2006) .... Suhel Khan
10. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) .... DJ at club
... aka Kank (India: Hindi title: informal short title)
... aka Never Say Goodbye (USA: informal English title)
11. Taxi No. 9 2 11 (2006) .... Jai Mittal
12. Zinda (2006) .... Rohit Chopra
13. Shikhar (2005) .... Special appearance
14. Garam Masala (2005) .... Shyam "Sam"
15. Water (2005) .... Narayan
16. Viruddh... Family Comes First (2005) .... Amar V. Patwardhan
17. Kaal (2005) .... Krish Thapar
18. Karam (2005) .... John
19. Elaan (2005) .... Abhimanyu
20. Madhoshi (2004) .... Aman
21. Dhoom (2004) .... Kabir
... aka Blast (International: English title)
22. Aetbaar (2004) .... Aryan Trivedi
... aka Aitbaar (India: Hindi title: alternative transliteration)
23. Lakeer - Forbidden Lines (2004) .... Saahil
24. Paap (2003) .... Shiven
... aka Sin (International: English title)
25. Saaya (2003) .... Dr. Akash "Akki" Bhatnagar
26. Jism (2003) .... Kabir Lal

Self:

1. "Koffee with Karan" .... Himself - Guest (1 episode)
- Episode #1.9 (????) TV Episode .... Himself - Guest
2. "Tinseltown TV" .... Himself (1 episode, 2004)
- Episode dated 6 March 2004 (2004) TV Episode .... Himself
3. 49th Manikchand Filmfare Awards 2003 (2004) (TV) .... Himself - Performer