$1M Winning Doritos Ad Spells Success for Producer Raj Suri

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United States

He’s the power behind the scenes: Raj Suri, an Indian American tech professional living in Ellicott City, Ariz., produced “Time Machine,” the $1 million prize-winning Doritos commercial that aired during the recent Super Bowl.

Suri worked as a producer with his frequent collaborator, director Ryan Andersen, on the spot.

The humorous 30-second ad film features a Andersen’s son as a tow-headed tot who tricks a neighbor into giving him a giant bag of Doritos by inviting him into a cardboard pretend “time machine.” (http://ow.ly/tKNh0)

The 39-year-old Arizona native juggles two careers — as a systems analyst at Intel and as an actor-filmmaker who is building a reputation for solid work on TV, independent films, and writing and producing comical “no/low budget commercials,” he explains on his Web site, RajSuriActor.com. Since the commercial took the top prize, he has been approached with opportunities he previously only dreamed of.

Suri told the blog for his alma mater Virginia Tech, “This whole experience is surreal. I am an amateur producer by definition. To create something that is regarded to be a superb feat in advertising is hard to wrap my head around.

“It’s odd that people want to talk to me. But it’s been fun. I do these competitions to create opportunities for myself. We’ll see what happens.”
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