Bollywood actor John Abraham – dimples, six-pack, farenheit topping hotness factor et al – bagged the Gladrags Manhunt Contest, Bipasha Basu and some good movies in a decade of being in the limelight.
Puraani Yaadein
Fans can wish John Abraham a happy birthday on the 17th December. He was born in 1972 to a Syrian Christian-Parsi family in Alwaye, Kerala. His father is Abraham John while his mother is Phiroza Irani. He has a younger brother Alan.
His Parsi name is Farhan.
He studied at the BombayScottishSchool. He went higher up the education ladder at the JaiHindCollege, graduating with a B.A in Economics. He also did an MMS from Mumbai Educational Trust.
He entered into a career in media, working with Time & Space Media Entertainment Promotions Ltd and later with Enterprises Nexus.
This line of work changed when he won the Gladrags Manhunt Contest and went to win second place in the Manhunt International held in Singapore. He soon started working in commercials while taking up an acting course at the Kishore Namit Kapoor’s acting school. He is associated with brands like Diet Pepsi, Yamaha, Castrol Power, Wrangler, Clinic All Clear and Fast Track.
John Abraham and Bipasha Basu are among the most good-looking and popular couples in Bollywood. He was going out with Riya Sen and more recently was linked with Vidya Balan and Amrita Rao which he denied.
Warrior of the Wild
John Abraham is actively involved with social communities like PETA and Habitat for Humanity. He recently addressed the issue of elephants entering urban areas and the need to contain that issue. His efforts earned him an ‘Eco-Warrior’ award from the Vice President of India.       
Jism and then some!
John Abraham’s debut into movies was in 2003 with the steamy Jism with Bipasha Basu, a story about seduction and deception. He was nominated for the Filmfare Best Debut Award. His second movie Saaya with Amrita Rao received fair reviews. In 2004, his fans got their fill of the handsome actor in movies like Aetbaar, Paap and finally, Dhoom which had him cast as a villain with slick action and racing bikes, which incidentally is his passion off-screen too!
      Year 2005, saw him in the comedy Priyadarshan’s Garam Masala and Deepa Mehta’s controversial Water. His role as Narayana, a follower of Gandhi who falls in love with a widow, received good reviews. He appeared as a villain again in Zinda in 2006; with Nana Patekar in Taxi Number 9211; a guest role in Kabhie Alvida Na Kehna; Babul with Amitabh Bacchan and Salman Khan; Kabul Express set against war-torn Afghanistan.
His visibility was again high in 2007 with Salaam-e-Ishq, Hattrick, No Smoking and Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal. He woo-ed Abhishek Bachhan and Priyanka Chopra in Dostana in 2008 that looked at homosexuality or atleast faking it.
John Abraham’s latest
His star potential is being made the most of by film-makers. In 2009, he will be starring in Nagesh Kukunoor’s Aashayein about gambling; Sooni Taraprewala’s Little Zizou, Aditya Chopra’s New York; Hook Ya Crook which is a movie about cricket. And 2010, will see the release of 1-800-Love, Exclusion and Luna, which is by Deepa Mehta and stars the likes of Rachel Weisz and the legendary Dustin Hoffman.

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 Dhoom and then in Zinda (2006). He received critical acclaimmation and appreciation worldwide for his movie Water (2005). In the year 2007, he was nominated under the category of Best Supporting Actor at Filmfare Awards for the movie Baabul. 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

Born in Mumbai, India on December 17, 1972. Uptil now, John Abraham has been one of the most successful Indian male models. Abraham's father is a Malayali architect. His mother, Phiroza Irani, is part of Mumbai's Parsi community. Abraham's Parsi name is “Farhan” to which his father, being a Syrian Christian, added “Abraham” as a respect for the Bible and named him “John“. He has one younger brother, Alan. He is an Indian Christian.

Abraham first went to the BombayScottishSchool and later to JaiHindCollege, where he completed his BA (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-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.

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 Bipasha 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 Lakeer (2004).

Breakthrough

After having many box office failures, John finally caught a break while starring in Dhoom in 2004, where he played the role of the villain 'Kabir'. The film was a big commercial success and one of the highest grossers of that 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.His first release of 2009 was the much awaited movie of the year, Yash Raj Films's New York, which explores how the lives of three best friends are changed after the 9/11 attacks in New York.

Personal life

Abraham has been dating actress Bipasha Basu since 2002. The couple is considered a Supercouple in India.

John has his own fashion line: his brand (JA) clothes, which primarily features 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 mankind.

“ ” I work for social causes that I address. I love animals and I work for PETA. I have my own brigade called John's brigade for Habitat for Humanity, Habitat For Humanity is a Jimmy Carter foundation project.” John said when asked about his work

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. John had to slide down a 20 feet pole but when he started doing so, he could not manage it rightly, and he landed directly on his leg.[

John Abraham has been adjudged the sexiest Asian man in the world in 2008.

In the annual round conducted by Eastern Eye, a leading British Asian weekly, Abraham emerged the top in a shortlist of 10.

The weekly sent judges a shortlist of 10 names. The judges then ranked the names according to their individual preferences and the newspaper then compiled the results to produce a final list.

"John Abraham made up for a quiet year with a sensational look in Dostana, with one of the greatest physiques ever seen on the big screen. His body helped to make the film a hit with Asian women," Hamant Verma, editor of Eastern Eye, said.

The judges included Brianna Ragel, editor of Asian Woman Magazine, Che Kurrien, editor of GQ India and the former editor of FHM India, Farhad Dadyburjor.

2007's top guy actor Shah Rukh Khan stood at third place after Hrithik Roshan in second place. Abraham was at third place last year.