Happy Birthday John Abraham: A look at some lesser-known facts about the star

Born to a Malayali Syrian Christian from Kerala, John's mother is an Irani with roots in Gujarat.

Not many know that John's Zoroastrian name is 'Farhan', but he was baptized with the name 'John'. His name 'John Abraham' is the reverse of his father's name Abraham John. He has a younger brother Alan Abraham.

After schooling at Bombay Scottish School in Mahim, Mumbai, John attended Jai Hind College, University of Mumbai, and completed his MBA from SVKM's NMIMS.

The actor began his career with modelling. He first appeared in the music video of the song 'Surma' by Punjabi singer Jazzy B. Later, he worked as a media planner for a brief period after which, in 1999, John participated in the Gladrags Manhunt Contest and went on to win it. He secured the second place at the Manhunt International pageant in the same year. Later, John did several commercials and appeared in various music videos.

To polish his acting skills, at a time when he was juggling between his modelling assignments, John undertook an acting course at Kishore Namit Kapoor acting institute. 

John Abraham debut in Bollywood in 2003 with the hit film Jism opposite Bipasha Basu. He later went on to star in several critically-acclaimed films such as Paap, Dhoom among others. Among the many films he did, John truly got his first recognition as an actor in 2004 action film Dhoom, where he played an antagonist.

John Abraham owns a production house JA Entertainments (John Abraham Entertainments). The first film he produced was Vicky Donor starring Ayushmaan Khurrana, for which he received the National Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Later, he also produced critically-acclaimed films like Madras Cafe and Parmanu. 

John Abraham is credit to be the pioneer of bodybuilding in the Bollywood industry. John, who often posts his workout videos and photos on his social media handle, is said to be inspired b none other than Akshay Kumar. A vegetarian, John is known to be one of the fittest actors in the Hindi film industry of his age.