John Abraham, sitting at his parents’ Bandra home, swatting flies with single-minded devotion, is a curious sight. For one, the illusion of a regular guy with free time on hand is deceptive and short-lived. This respite that allows him a little breathing time between endorsements, announcements and shoots came in only because of a leg injury during the shoot of David Dhawan’s Hook Ya Crook. And now he’s off to London for a two-month schedule for Abbas Tyrewala’s 1-800-Love.

Abraham’s career, evidently, is on the cusp of change. Last year, he followed up the financial debacles of No Smoking and Goal with a successful Dostana.

While Abhishek Bachchan walked away with the laughs, Abraham’s success was delicately poised on his posterior.

The box-office success of Kabir Khan’s New York (it netted Rs 55 crore till July first week) top-lining Abraham, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Katrina Kaif, could change the perception about an actor dismissed as a poster-boy (‘Gone

Abraham’, as a film magazine chose to call him), to one who could go beyond his physicality.

Khan is generous in his praise: “Sam had to be someone with a certain presence and I could only think of John playing the part. He has certainly matured as an actor. It also helps that he is incredibly hardworking and sincere. Kabul Express was shot on the run with the Taliban at our heels.”

“It’s a relief,” says Abraham about the accolades, “because Dostana was a lot about my body and looks whereas this is about performance.” Even directors dismissive of him as an actor were willing to concede that he was “not bad” or effective in the film. “Some people were pleasantly surprised and some unpleasantly so,” adds Abraham, 37.

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