Tall, Olive skinned, Mischievous eyes, Raven Black hair thats perfectly rigid, a sculpted body and an apt smile. Truly handsome, isn’t it? Well, these are just a few of the good things that John possesses. His flawless demeanor just adds up to his credit as a “purrfect gentleman.”But, unlike other bollywood actors, John Abraham was never born with the silver spoon in his mouth. And also unlike Shahrukh, he never actually struggled for the sake of being a bollywood actor.

Born to a malayalee father and a parsi mother, he had a pretty much middle class childhood who just wanted to be good in studies and then get a proper 9 to 5 job. He was raised in an area known as ghatkopar in central Mumbai. After finishing his schooling from the prestigious Bombay Scottish and then completing his bachelors degree in Jai Hind college he went on to do his MMS from Mumbai Educational Trust (MET).Then he landed himself a job in a media firm. As luck would have it when one of the models did not turn up for a show John’s boss asked him to fill in his place. That was the stimulus! The rest of the good things just followed simply.

Then, he landed himself his first assignment, an ad for Live In Jeans. Later, he turned out to be the first runner up in Gladrags Manhunt '99 which got him many modelling assignments from respectable firms. But still he was not a popular figure in India. He did some music videos but then would soon be wiped out of public memory. His tryst with commercials continued.

But his first real movie break came to him when Pooja Bhatt offered him the lead role for Jism. It put John in the face of controversy due to the movies erotic nature but also brought him right under the spotlight. But he remained unhassled and the calmness proved to be of worth. Then John was just being seen in a trail of good movies. Paap, Dhoom, Lakeer, Karam, Viruddh and now Water all show John portraying a different character. But he has done his job with the utmost finesse.

One more thing worth mentioning about John is that he has never given in for anything, except his own belief. He believed in himself. He was asked to change his name while making an entry to the film industry because his name sounded too ‘angrezi’. He was also asked to cut his hair. He stuck to the name, stuck to the style and then there was born a new national icon.

Even recently, he was threatened not to act in the movie Water but John did it and it paid off well! It is evident how well Water has been acclaimed internationally.

Today, John is one of the most successful actors with a very successful personal life too. The actor and his girlfriend actress Bipasha Basu have been going on strong for almost five years now.

This is an incident which John fondly remembered in Simi Garewal’s talk show. It happened when he was a teenager . On an unguarded occasion he kept staring at his reflection in the mirror when his father crept up from behind him and asked, a bit amused, “Son, what do you think your doing? And John replied , “Dad, this face is going to sell products someday”. That day sure has arrived! John Abraham is a brand today.