John Abraham began his career as a model before transitioning to acting, but despite being in the industry for over 20 years, he has faced significant criticism for his acting skills. However, he received praise from Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg for his performance in Deepa Mehta’s film ‘Water’, which was nominated for an Oscar.
In a conversation with BookMyShow’s YouTube channel, John shared his experience of attending the Academy Awards in 2006. Deepa Mehta’s film ‘Water’, in which he played a lead role alongside Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas, and Waheeda Rehman, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. Although the film did not win an Oscar, Abraham gathered some precious memories from the event.
The actor said, “When I went to the awards, I had the honour of meeting Steven Spielberg, and he loved my performance in Water, whereas no one here even saw it for a day.” He also mentioned his conversation with Hollywood actor Charlize Theron and shared, “I remember Charlize Theron talking to me and saying that. I loved what you were processing, but no one here talked about that.”
Deepa Mehta’s film ‘Water’ was initially planned to feature Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das, and Akshay Kumar, with filming scheduled in Varanasi. However, protests erupted due to controversy surrounding Mehta’s previous film ‘Fire’, forcing the project to be shelved. Years later, Mehta revived the film, shooting it in Sri Lanka with a new cast.