By SHEELA NARAYANAN

WILL John Abraham's gluteus maximus, taut enough to bounce a 10-cent coin on, take him to the superstardom enjoyed by the likes of Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan?

This 36-year-old actor has spent six years in the Hindi movie business and his last two releases - the comedy Dostana and terrorist thriller New York, both of which play peek-a-boo with the said gluteus maximus - have had a good run at the box office.

An industry insider told online portal India FM: "New York will have more girls flocking to multiplexes than guys. The main reason... they would be finally getting to see John Abraham's full butt. He had shown a bit of it in Dostana and now John's female fans would not want to miss out the full show."

Never mind that the butt scene is hardly sexy at all. It is part of a sequence where John's character, a Muslim NRI, gets tortured. But the women don't seem to be complaining.

John said: "The point wasn't just to have abs or a great chest or look bulked up, I had to work on the entire look, especially my legs... I am happy that people are looking at my body and appreciating the look. In fact, at times, I even feel like a meat shop."

But don't think he's all brawn and no brain. John has a honours degree in economics and an MBA. He used to work as a media buyer for an ad agency in Mumbai before he signed up for the Gladrags Manhunt Contest in 1999 and went on to score second place in the Manhunt International competition.

That led to modelling and then acting. But instead of going down the romantic hero path, as was the case with other model-turned-actors like Arjun Rampal, John opted for an unconventional role: He played a lawyer who has an affair with a married woman in the 2003 erotic thriller Jism, which starred Bipasha Basu. And his performance (sans shirt) created a ripple. His next few films didn't do well, but the turnaround came in 2004's hit film Dhoom, where he played a motorcycle-riding bandit.

Not only did that role set him on the road to potential superstardom, it also led to him to a role in Deepa Mehta's Oscar-nominated movie Water. "After working with John, I realised what a wonderful human being he is. He just brings so much positive energy to the location," she said. Naturally John is reported to be in her next film, Exclusion.

In an interview with India FM, director Karan Johar who produced Dostana said: "John is one actor to watch out for. Both in terms of the film he is picking and the hard work that he is willing to invest, the guy is going to go places."

But John thinks the industry is still cautious about letting him headline a movie: "I don't blame them because I am as cautious. I love being the underdog because I am most dangerous from that position, whichever way you look at it. I've nothing to lose because no one is behind my back. I'm behind theirs."

With his work ethic, his looks and that hot bod, we're betting he won't remain an underdog for much longer.

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» The heat is on