John Abraham

Modelling career and acting debut (1999–2003)

Abraham started his modelling career appearing in the music video of the song "Surma" by Punjabi singer Jazzy B.^[24][25] 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.^[26] In 1999, he won the Gladrags Manhunt Contest and went to the Philippines for Manhunt International, where he won second place.^[27] 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.^[28]

Considered "the top model of India before he ventured into films",^[29] 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.^[30] 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".^[31]

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!"^[32]

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.^[33][34] 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.^[35]

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,^[36] 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.^[37] 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.^[38][39]

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.^[40] 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,^[41] though it did well in the overseas markets.^[42] 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.^[43]

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$10 million).^[44] 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.^[45] New York performed well at the box office and received favourable reviews.^[46][47]

Comedies and focus on action films (2010–2019)

He has a fashion line – branded JA Clothes – which primarily features his favourite article of clothing, jeans.^[48]

In 2010, he was seen in the films Aashayein and Jhootha Hi Sahi. Both of the films turned out to be box office failures.^[49][50] Later on, Abraham appeared in the films Force (2011), Desi Boyz (2011) and Housefull 2 (2012). Force collected ₹347.2 million (US$4.2 million) in India and was declared "Above Average" by Box Office India.^[51] Housefull 2 grossed ₹1,140 million (US$14 million) in India.^[52] 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,^[53] but grossed a successful total of ₹1.62 billion (US$19 million).^[54] The coming-of-age romantic comedy I, Me Aur Main, underperformed at the box office and received unfavorable reviews.^[55] 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.^[56] Then his movie Madras Cafe, which was also a second movie for him as a producer, garnered much critical acclaim.^[57] His next release was Welcome Back, which was successful at the box office, earning ₹168.76 crore (US$20 million) worldwide.^[58]

In 2016, his first release was Rocky Handsome which was an average grosser at the box office.^[59] His second release of the year was Dishoom, and despite mixed to negative reviews, the film proved to be successful at the box office grossing over ₹1.2 billion (US$14 million) worldwide.^[60] His next release of the year was Force 2, the sequel to the 2011 film Force. Force 2 became the highest opening film for Abraham and opened with mixed to positive reviews.^[61][62][63] Abraham's performance received praise from the audience and critics. His next films in 2018 were the action films Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran with Diana Penty and Boman Irani and Satyameva Jayate with Manoj Bajpayee and Neha Sharma's younger sister Aisha Sharma. Satyameva Jayate was commercially successful earning ₹1.08 billion worldwide.^[64] In 2019, he starred in the action thriller Romeo Akbar Walter and played Mrunal Thakur's husband DCP Sanjeev Kumar Yadav in Nikkhil Advani's Batla House, based on the 2008 Batla House encounter case. The latter grossed over ₹1.11 billion (US$13 million) worldwide becoming a commercially successful venture.^[65]

Abraham said in 2016 that he had spurned multiple offers for Hollywood films since 2006. He told an interviewer he wanted to focus on making "world standard" Indian films, though he did not rule out international films if an interesting offer came along.^[66]

Setbacks and Pathaan (2020–present)

In 2021, Abraham appeared in Mumbai Saga and Satyameva Jayate 2, both of which were box office disasters.^[67] He did a cameo in his own production Sardar Ka Grandson alongside Arjun Kapoor and Aditi Rao Hydari, that streamed on Netflix.^[68] He produced, wrote and acted in the story of science-fiction actioner Attack: Part 1 (2022), where he co-starred with Rakul Preet Singh and Jacqueline Fernandez.^[69] The film released threatically in April 2022 with mixed reviews from critics who praised the action sequences while criticising the screenplay, Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama wrote, "Attack: Part 1 works due to the novel concept, action, VFX and John Abraham's first-rate performance".^[70] The film grossed ₹19.20 crore in India and ₹3.50 crore overseas, for a worldwide gross collection of ₹22.70 crore eventually bombing at the box office.^[71]

In his second release of 2022, he starred as Bhairav Purohit co-starring Disha Patani, Arjun Kapoor and Tara Sutaria in Mohit Suri's psychological thriller Ek Villain Returns.^[72] The film released theatrically in July 2022 and opened to mixed reviews from critics. Sukanya Vema of Rediff wrote, "Ek Villain Returns falls back on the popularity of the Galliyan track to boost its appeal".^[73] It grossed ₹49.63 crores in India and ₹19.01 crore overseas, for a worldwide gross collection of ₹68.64 crore (US$8.2 million) and was a box office flop.^[74] In November 2022, he produced along with Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar the romantic comedy film Tara Vs Bilal starring Harshvardhan Rane and Sonia Rathee.^[75]

His first release of 2023 came with Siddharth Anand's mass action thriller Pathaan produced by YRF, co-starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone.^[76] It is the fourth instalment in the YRF Spy Universe. Principal photography for Pathaan began in November 2020. The film was shot over various locations. Pathaan was released in India on 25 January 2023, coinciding with the Republic Day. It received positive reviews from critics and broke several box-office records, including the biggest opening day and opening weekend for a Bollywood film. Abraham's performance was highly praised with critics calling him one of the biggest highlights in the movie .^[77] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama termed the film a "complete entertainer replete with action, emotions, patriotism, humour, thrill, and of course, the star power of Shah Rukh Khan".^[78] Pathaan had a worldwide gross collection of ₹1,050 crore (US$130 million).^[79]

Abraham's future releases include Tehran directed by Arun Gopalan and produced by Dinesh Vijan,^[80] and The Diplomat, scheduled to be released on 11 January 2024.^[81][82] "Vedaa" (2024) is a crime-action thriller directed by Nikkhil Advani, featuring John Abraham as a grieving officer supporting a young Dalit woman's fight for dignity, blending intense action with a poignant social message.^[83]

Producer

Abraham's debut as a producer was titled Vicky Donor (2012) and the film featured Ayushmann Khurrana, Annu Kapoor and Yami Gautam in lead roles. Abraham also appeared in an item-number for the film. It opened to positive response, and turned out to be a critical and commercial success. His second production, Madras Cafe which was also directed by Shoojit Sircar, opened to overwhelming response from the critics. In 2018, he produced the Marathi film Savita Damodar Paranjpe. In 2022 his fourth venture, was a Malayalam movie Mike.^[84]