Nitin Sahrawat

Early life and education

Sahrawat was born in a family of academicians, with his mother being a professor and his father an attorney, and did his schooling from Brightlands School and St. Joseph's Academy, Dehradun. Subsequently he pursued Mechanical Engineering at Bapuji Institute of Engineering & Technology, Davangere, Karnataka. Sahrawat opted out of the degree after first year, citing disillusionment with the Indian education system as the primary reason; and left for Mumbai to pursue a career in modeling and acting.

Modelling

Nitin started his modelling career in 2002 with a print campaign for Standard Chartered and in the following years he went on to become one of the most visible faces on Indian television, with TV commercials for brands including Tide, Pillsbury Company, Maruti 800, Hyundai Santro, LG Electronics, Hero MotoCorp, Ariel, Tropicana Products and Sunsilk. As a result of Indian economy opening up in 1990s (1990s in India) international brands started devising strategies of entering the lucrative Indian market. Nitin Sahrawat was the face of many such launches in India, including his commercial for Pedigree Petfoods, Nokia N72 and Tetley.

In 2004 Samsung rolled out a big budget campaign to commemorate Indian cricket team's tour of Pakistan, which was one of the biggest sporting event of the Indian subcontinent as the two nations had resumed sporting ties after a long gap. Sahrawat acted in this campaign which was named "Jeet Lo Dil" (Win Hearts). As a result of this campaign he became popular in Pakistan too, and in spite of Pakistan Government's official ban on using Indian actors for Pakistani ad campaigns, he later went on to act in numerous Pakistani TV commercials.

His TV commercial for Indian Oil Corporation won the IDPA (Indian Documentary Producers' Association) and RAPA (Radio & TV Advertising Practitioners Association of India) Awards in 2005. In 2010 Cannes Lions winner director duo Nic Osborne and Sune Maroni directed a Fiat Punto TV commercial starring Nitin Sahrawat which went on to win numerous awards including Creative ABBY 2011 and Adfest 2011. Other acclaimed directors who have often worked with Sahrawat include Pradeep Sarkar, Shantanu Bagchi, Oni Sen, Arjun Mukherjee, Manav Menon, Aniket Shirke, Prahlad Kakkar, Ram Madhvani, Abhinay Deo, V. K. Prakash, E. Nivas, Pankaj Parashar and Abhijit Chaudhuri (Dadu).

Acting

After his two movie contract with Sarvodaya Visuals got delayed, Sahrawat accepted Balaji Telefilms's offer for season two of their popular show Kitani Mohabbat Hai. He enacted the character of Rajveer Singh Ahluwalia, a stoic police officer which was quite different from the amiable characters that he had usually portrayed in his TV commercials. Kitani Mohabbat Hai Season 2 ended in May 2011 with Rajveer getting shot while trying to save Arohi.

In the first half of 2013 Nitin Sahrawat was seen in two other Balaji Telefilms shows, namely Savdhaan India and Parichay. In Parichay he played the role of a fictitious Bollywood superstar called Aman Kumar which was inspired by real life Bollywood superstar Salman Khan. In the show Aman Kumar hires Kunal (played by Samir Soni ) to defend him in a DUI & Hit and run case which was based on Salman Khan's 2002 Bandra incident.

In the latter half of 2013 Sahrawat signed up for the award winning show Bade Achhe Lagte Hain as the antagonist against the character of Ram Kapoor (played by Ram Kapoor). In February 2014 Sahrawat started shooting for Star Plus's new show Ishq Kills which is directed by Vikram Bhatt. In the latter half of the year Sahrawat started shooting for Saurabh Tewari's new show called Do Deewane Ek Shehar Me, but this show was scrapped by the channel before its telecast.

In 2015 Sahrawat was signed up for two shows of 4 Lions Films, namely Qubool Hai and Adhuri Kahaani Hamari (TV series). In Qubool Hai he portrayed the part of Bollywood superstar Anand Kumar while in Adhuri Kahaani Hamari (TV series) he was seen as Chote Raja Lakshman Dev and was paired opposite Shubhangi Atre Poorey. In September Sahrawat was seen in a special episode of Code Red, in which he played the character of a psychopathic killer. This episode was based on truck driver M. Jaishankar and his killing spree in southern India.

Personal life

Nitin Sahrawat was married to Indian television actress Vaishnavi Dhanraj. The two first met on the set of Nitin's show Kitani Mohabbat Hai Season 2. After a courtship of two years Nitin and Vaishnavi got married in Shantikunj, Haridwar according to Vedic Rituals on 23 December 2012. The reception in Mumbai was attended by their co actors including Meghna Malik, Kritika Kamra, Karan Kundra, Simran Kaur, Sadiya Siddiqui, Dayanand Shetty, Khalid Siddiqui and Hrishikesh Pandey. The two stayed in Mumbai with their Labrador Retriever named Thor.

In March 2014 Nitin and Vaishnavi were the guests for the launch episode of NDTV's The Getaway in which the two were given a Hyundai Elantra which they then drove down to Kamshet. The theme of the episode being adventure,the couple then paraglided off the challenging Shelar's Site. This episode was shot at their Lokhandwala Complex home and also featured their pet.

Sahrawat and Dhanraj filed for legal separation in July 2015 and were divorced in January 2016, opting for a divorce in Bandra family court. Vaishnavi cited that Nitin used to physically abuse her, which forced her to opt for divorce.

Social causes

Nitin has contributed to various social causes in the form of his Public Service Films. These include causes like Family Planning in India, Public Safety and World Heart Federation.