Who is Hari Sadu?

It’s two years since the Naukri.com ad began to be aired, but it is still receiving accolades all over the world. It won a bronze recently at the APAC Effies held in Singapore. The highlight of the ad is the nasty boss who sparks it all off, Hari Sadu.

But who is Hari Sadu? Hari Sadu is a 37 year old, whose real name is Bobby Parvez. Parvez slipped naturally into the role of the boss from hell, whose junior colleague gets his own back on him by spelling his name out for a hotel reservation: “H for Hitler, A for arrogant, R for rascal, I for idiot.”

But Parvez is not just Hari Sadu. He has done around 30 ads for brands such as Krackjack, Acer, Mitashi and one for Cleartrip.com.

Parvez completed his graduation from Delhi and wanted to go abroad to do his MBA, but to study abroad, he needed to have 16 years of education and he had only 15. He came down to Mumbai in the mid-1990s to do a course here, but also thought of trying his hand in movies and theatre. “I thought, why not try something new while I have a year in hand.”

He started working in theatre with people like the veteran theatre person, Satyadev Dubey. “I wanted to learn the ropes, but I was too shy to act. And back then, I never even thought of ads. It was just films or theatre. Frankly, modelling didn’t even filter into my mind as a profession, I didn’t know how it worked,” he says.

He eventually did his first ad with Sanjiv Shah of Enigma Films, after which he starred in a number of campaigns. Parvez also got around to working in films with roles in the critically acclaimed Black Friday and the box office dud, Buddha Mar Gaya. He says he enjoyed working with the cast and crew of Black Friday, especially with director Anurag Kashyap.

Comparing the auditions of ads and films, he says, “I think auditions for ads are far more professional than auditions for films. Even if you know someone in the production house or agency, you still have to audition for the character. But in films, it’s different. A director might want a specific actor for some reason.”

He says he enjoyed working with Rajesh Krishnan of Footcandles on the Naukri.com ad and with Abhinay Deo of Ramesh Deo Productions. Sharing an interesting incident from the Naukri.com shoot, he says, “The crew and technicians laid a bet that the ad would make it big and be appreciated. I thought they were just pulling my leg, but later, when the ad really did do well, they said, ‘We’ve been in this industry long enough to know how an ad will do’.”

After the ad did well, his father approved of it, too. “It meant a lot because he was so worried when I decided not to go ahead with the MBA,” Parvez smiles.

Parvez has shot for a few ads that will go on air soon. Going further, he wants to pursue films very seriously.