'I want to just go backpacking all over'
Metrolife chats up with John Abraham, who was in the City to promote his latest film, ‘New York’
Several groups of hysterical fans follow him, they even end up at his hotel, where the staff and journalists get dogged for information. Meanwhile, John, after a long day of press conferences and meeting fans, is as fresh as ever.
The beginnings of John are quite humble, with no family connections in the film industry. He started off as a model, and after doing many music videos, John entered Bollywood with Jism in 2003 and ever since his career graph has risen slowly but steadily.
The turning pointing in his career came in 2004 when he was reunited with his real life love, (Bikes!), in the movie Dhoom, and with that the world knew that John was not all about Jism.
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 seventh sexiest man in the world.
Speaking of the appeal, John, presently, sports a huge plaster, on his left foot, making him limp slightly. “I fractured my foot while shooting a
day-long cricket match
for Hook Ya Crook, and the cast has been on for almost a month now. I hope to get it off in a couple of days.”
So what’s the first thing, he would do after getting his cast off?
“I’ll ride my bikes,” says John excitedly, “I’ve been itching to ride my latest acquisition, a Hayabusa. I also have a V Max bike, which is a total cult bike.”
So if he had to choose between his bike and Bipasha, what would it be? “That’s a tough question, I wouldn't answer that, as my bikes are very sensitive.”
Coming back to his films, John is excited about his upcoming release, “I loved shooting for New York, it was a very memorable time in my life, as was shooting for Dostana in Florida.”
Narrating a funny incident at the New York airport, he says, “I was stopped at the counter by the officials when they saw Afghanistan visa on my passport, I told them that I had shot for Kabul Express there, they were so curious that they made me tell them the whole story of the movie and were pretty impressed.”
Now that John’s finally awaiting New York’s release, he is also in the final phase of shooting his film Hook Ya Crook, directed by David Dhawan. “This film co-stars Kay Kay Menon, Shreyas Talpade and Genelia D’souza, and has a very unusual story written by Rensil D'Silva, who also wrote Rang De Basanti. Hook Ya Crook is a thriller involving comedy and cricket.”
The film also features Dhoni, as a part of the cast. Apart from Hook Ya Crook, John has two other releases lined up, Nagesh Kukunoor's Aashayein and Abbas Tyrewala's 1-800-Love.
For now, John’s contented with his work, “I would rate my performance in New York
as the best till date but am always looking to push it a notch higher with every film of mine.” In his free time, apart from riding his bikes, John loves to travel.
“I want to just go backpacking all over the world, see different countries, it’s been a dream of mine for a long time.”
Almost two hours later, the fans are still waiting patiently at the hotel reception, to catch
a glimpse of the demigod, they sure haven't gotten enough of John. And looking at his film line-up, the audience haven’t either.
