5 members
Early life
Abraham was born in Mumbai to a Malayali father and a Parsi mother.[1] His father is an architect from Alwaye, Kerala; his mother is named Phiroza Irani. Abraham's Parsi name is "Farhan" while his father being a Nasrani, named him "John". He has a younger brother, Alan. Abraham studied at the Bombay Scottish School, Mahim in Mumbai and did his MMS from Mumbai Educational Trust (MET).
Modeling
Abraham started his career with the music video of a song called `Surma` by a World Famous punjabi singer named Jazzy B. Then he went off with 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. In 1999, he won the Gladrags Manhunt Contest and went to The Philippines for Manhunt International, where he won second place. Following this, he was signed on by Carrie Models' in Singapore and did a bit of modelling there, and later in Hong Kong, London and New York City. He also appeared in a number of commercial advertisements and in music videos for singers like Pankaj Udhas, Hans Raj Hans and Babul Supriyo. To improve his acting skills, Abraham joined Kishore Namit Kapoor acting lab and completed a course on acting while juggling modelling assignments
Acting career
Abraham made his acting debut in 2003 with Jism, a thriller in which he co-starred with Bipasha Basu. The film was a moderate box office success and his performance was recognised by critics.[2] It was while making of this film that Abraham and Basu started dating each other. Later the same year came the paranormal thriller Saaya (2003), which was a commercial and critical failure. It was followed by a number of failures, including Pooja Bhatt's directorial debut Paap (2004) and Ahmed Khan's Lakeer (2004).
After having appeared in these films, Abraham was signed for a role in Dhoom in 2004, an action film produced by Yash Raj Films. He played the villainous role of Kabir. The film was a big commercial success and emerged as one of the highest grossers of that year.[3]
In 2005 he starred in the supernatural thriller Kaal and the comedy Garam Masala both of which did well at the box office.[4] 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 of the 1930s. The film was written and directed by independent Canadian film-maker Deepa Mehta. It was popular overseas, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Academy Awards.
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.[5] In that same year, he starred in the films Zinda, Taxi No 9211, Baabul and Kabul Express.[6] 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,[7] though it did well in the overseas markets.[8] His last two 2007 releases included the arthouse thriller No Smoking and the sports film Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal.
In 2008, Abraham starred alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra in Dostana, his only release that year. Produced by Karan Johar, the film performed well at the box office.
His first release of 2009 was another much awaited production by Yash Raj Films, New York. The film was a critical and commercial success. It followed the lives of three best friends after the September 11 attacks in New York.
