Bollywood hunk comes to town

A couple of days ago, Bollywood's man-of-the-moment John Abraham and his friends snuck into a multiplex in Mumbai to watch his latest release, Dostana, and to drink in the reactions from his fans surreptitiously. Good news first came in the form of the boy at the ticket counter, who said all the tickets were sold out except for the ones in the front row.

Abraham suppressed a grin and spent the next three hours craning his neck to watch himself on screen. Pain in the neck notwithstanding, he bills the voyeuristic episode as the most rewarding and enjoyable experience of his life. To top that ordeal, Abraham then had to spend another three hours on a plane to Dubai to attend a charitable event for Habitat For Humanity on Tuesday evening.

Rubbing his neck vigorously trying to iron out the crick, Abraham says the physical discomfort was soon forgotten when he heard the laughter, lusty cheers and cat calls from the movie-goers.

"You should have heard the reaction when I came out of the water in my trunks. It was unbelievable.

"When Karan [Johar, the acclaimed filmmaker and Dostana's producer] told me that this movie would ensure that I returned to Bollywood with a bang, I did not take him seriously. Now, I am beginning to believe him.''

For all those who are yet to catch this romantic comedy, Abraham was seen in the avatar of a bronzed Baywatch hunk. Brawn, beaches and babes form the backdrop to his latest hit about three friends based in Miami. Instead of being embarrassed about being hailed as Bollywood's current flavour, Abraham is revelling in being drooled at.
"What's wrong with being eye-candy? Look at it this way women are objectified all the time, why can't men be objectified for a change?

I am not embarrassed

"And I take it as a huge compliment when a group of girls come to the theatres to watch me. To put it simply, I am not embarrassed about my body and I have learnt it to use it to my advantage,'' Abraham says with a wink.

Surprisingly, if the same question had been raised a few months ago, we would have caught Abraham in a different frame of mind.

"I was depressed and I had retreated into a dark shell. It took seven months and a funny script to get me out of it,'' he reveals.

Apparently, playing a compulsive gambler who realises that he would die soon in Naagesh Kukkunoor's film Aashayein had sapped the energy out of him. The experience, though cathartic, seems to have cost Abraham dearly.

"It was a dark and intense role. So I wanted to live the character, and for that I needed to take a sabbatical. I did not do anything all day for months on end. I just sat and stared into space.

"But it was an interesting phase. Although many had warned me about being ‘out-of-sight', I still chose to do it.''
Abraham's philosophy of living life on his own terms did not end with making radical professional changes. His high-profile relationship with Bollywood's spunky siren Bipasha Basu and the "will they or won't they get married'' debate, which has already taken up reams of tabloid space is likely to continue unabated.

Comfortable

"We are both very busy with our respective careers. And I prefer to talk about Bipasha as an individual who is swamped with work. About our marriage — although we have been in a relationship for the past seven years, I am not ready to take the final plunge.

"But, we are in a comfortable mature space right now,'' he says with studied nonchalance.

Abraham, who made his debut in 2003 with the steamy thriller Jism and who has seen some remarkable activity in his career graphs with successful movies such as Dhoom and Garam Masala, adopts a similar clinical approach about the dismal economic climate. Word has it that Bollywood has been severely hit, with big production houses contemplating slashing actors' rates and shelving big-budget projects.

"To be honest, it's tough times ahead for actors like us. Though, ironically, many are offering me more money post-Dostana, I realise that it would be foolish to hike my rates. No actor, no matter how big, will be feasible if they demand astronomical amounts,'' says Abraham.

For all those who missed the scoop, Abraham's frenemy Salman Khan had recently revealed to tabloid! that he had upped his price as his solution to the economic downturn.

"I beg to differ. And I doubt whether such a step is practical,'' he adds.

The politics of economics aside, though Abraham is enjoying riding high on the crest of the Dostana wave, he has not been equally fortunate in the matter of the much-anticipated Hollywood project Luna, with Dustin Hoffman and Rachel Weisz in the lead.

"I think the film is not going to happen. After the writer's strike in Hollywood, I have not heard much about it and the director Deepa Mehta is now busy with two other projects.''

All the same, Abraham is making the most of his glorious comeback. "I was very nervous about the outcome of Dostana. Now that it has done well, I am in a great space.''

Quote unquote

"I am not upfor auction.But my jacket is.''

John Abraham gets cheeky when asked about his involvement with Habitat For Humanity's International Project and raising millions for the homeless in Pakistan, Indian, Bangladesh and Ethiopia. The property developer ETA Star and other business houses donated Dh2million for the project.

The leather jacket Abraham refers to fetched Dh32,000, while an autographed football went under the hammer for Dh33,000.

On his Bollywood pals

If an actor rolls into town, then an interview is deemed incomplete if questions about their on/off-screen chemistry with the female co-stars are not thrown their way. But tabloid! altered the game and asked John Abraham his thoughts on Bollywood's alpha males.

If there is one actor in Bollywood who is known for his combustible chemistry with his male co-stars, then it is Abraham. It's believed that his greatest hits, Garam Masala, Dhoom and Dostana, can be attributed to his feel-good equations with fellow actors Akshay Kumar and Abhishek Bachchan.

Here is a look at his instant reactions when these names were uttered:

-Salman Khan: "Super fit at his age. He gives me hope that I too can look that good 12 years down the line.''
- Abhishek Bachchan: "Gorgeous… I mean he is a great pal and we get along like a house on fire. We can never be awkward with one another.''
-Ranbir Kapoor: "Cheeky, yet cute, Casanova.''
- Imran Khan: "He is intensely cute. I saw his debut movie Jaane Tu… and he gets that cute boy-next-door look right.''
- Sanjay Dutt: "A superstar.''