Your Custom Text Here
Saaj appeared on BBC1’s new gameshow “I Can See Your Voice” with his father Shash! The show is hosted by Paddy McGuiness
After taking a quick Bollywood dance workshops with celebrities Amanda Holden, Jimmy Carr, Ronan Keating and Alison Hamond, they had to guess if contestants could sing without hearing their voices.
With £10,000 up for grabs, it was a nail-biting experience!
Saaj is dancing in the opening sequence of the latest Bollywood release on Netflix - The Girl on The Train. Starring Parineeti Chopra.
The film was shot in London and the song was filmed in Tilgate Park. Saaj was selected for a solo piece at the beginning of the song by choreographer Vijay Ganguly.
Playing a leading creative role in local online arts festival called “Right Here”.
Creative Crawley exists to establish a reputation for Crawley as a creative place beyond its boundaries. Involving 16 local community groups and arts organisations, 21 local artists with 24 events over 2 days, the festival included art, dance, film, photography, music, poetry, talks and much more.
Saaj led careers workshops for local Performance Arts college students. He also performed in a fantastic trailer put together to promote the festival.
Check out the tailer here!
Saaj is currently the Vegan face of Wagamama!
The commercial was filmed in a restaurant in London during the pandemic.
Saaj was selected as a finalist for the World Monologue Games; a global event with thousands of competitors from over 80 countries.
Theatres and film sets around the world are closed for business but this didn’t Saaj’s passion for performing. His sprint monologue entry will be streamed on YouTube on 17th Oct 2020. Saaj performs a piece from the film, "Wolf" originally acted by Jack Nicholson.
During the lockdown Saaj has used the time to work on his American accent thanks to the wonderful “Rachel’s English” on YouTube!
Saaj wrote a spoken word piece based on lockdown reflections, the BLM movement, our relationship with ourselves and social media.
Saaj was excited to showcase his writing performed by some incredible artists at Pursued By A Dragon Theatre Company’s South Asian Scratch Night via YouTube🎭
A benefit of lockdown has been the opportunity to connect with wonderful creatives like Yusuf Niazi, Tarish Patel, Sanjay Lago and Gavin Joseph.
Saaj is leading a newly-commissioned film by Leeds based artist Karanjit Panesar to be showcased at 2 Queens Gallery in Leicester.
The film uses a narrative structure called a ‘strange loop’; a device that involves multiple levels of reality that are nested inside each other. Strange loops are often found in stories of time travel and the supernatural, and usually result in paradoxes and general confusion.
Actor, Container follows characters Saaj and Chandni, who are pulled between these kinds of levels, only to wind up back where they started. It is a recurring dream in tandem.
“A Game Of Two Halves”
This is Saaj’s debut leading a feature film. Principal photography took place in the UK and Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, the world’s largest film studio complex. The film will be released summer 2020.
By Shirley Day & Sheila Nortley
"When Sanjay, a young student decides to venture to Washington on a school fellowship programme to pursue the love of his life a twist of fate causes him to end up in a poverty stricken part of India where he teaches football whilst learning a lot about himself"
A short film about the troubles and woes of a rough sleeper, his addiction, and the fate of the man that tried to help him.
This was shot in the streets of Ilford. A number of night shoots captured the gritty nature of East London after hours, when drug dealers and the homeless among roam at large. Produced by Thorngate Films and Directed by Sukhvinder Singh Durhailay and Gurpal Singh.
Training at an award winning drama school.
I am now training with Identity School of Acting twice a week in Brixton. Covering voice, text, movement, screen and a number of other fundamentals. I have had a great start so far with a fantastic group of actors. I have also been nominated as my class President!
More updates to follow.
Pilot episode for all-action drama Jack Stall.
Filming for this action show has begun in London. I play a member of the Intelligence Task Force, responsible for fighting a looming terrorist threat.
The production is directed by Ali Jacko and stars Lulia Vantur.
Bollywood dance video encapsulating the bohemian streets of Brighton.
Check out this special collaboration with wonderkid Matt Aspinall as we chase our Chammak Challo, Ruchi Ranjan through the streets of sunny Brighton. Please share and comment!
A short film in collaboration with PBL Jewellers about siblings reuniting on Raksha Bandhan.
Raj has not spoken to his sister, Priya in years. Today is Raksha Bandhan which celebrates the bond between siblings. Will Raj put his family feud aside to reconcile with his younger sister? Click the video link to find out!
This short was filmed in London with Director Sanjeev Ramesh and the very talented Esha Jass.
Selected for Shangri-La Hotel’s global commercial campaign filmed in Paris.
I’ve just come back from a week of shooting in Paris for Shangri-la group’s new commercial which will be released in the coming months. It was amazing to work with such a global team. This included, Directorial team from LA, Production from France, talent from, France, Japan, South Africa and UK.
It was a truly global shoot!
A short drama about a young woman caught between her traditional upbringing and her new found dream.
This is my first role as the male lead in a film project!
Foreigner’s Pride explores the volatile marriage between Giribala and Aniket. The combination of Giribala’s new found dream and Aniket’s destructive behaviour leads to a dramatic showdown. Aniket’s affair with theatre actress Latika, threatens to end his marriage.
The film is Produced by the Met Film School and Directed by the incredible Upasana Chakraborty. It was shot in Ealing Film Studios and Canary Wharf over five days. I learnt so much working with my co-star Ruchi Ranjan.
The final day of filming coincided with my birthday! The whole team organised a cake for me which was a lovely gesture.
Foreigner’s Pride will be released October 2019.
Major Bollywood production about the Cricket World Cup Winning Team, starring Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone.
Working with the best in the Bollywood business and being on set with Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone has been an amazing experience. I have been shooting for four days on the film ‘83 which centres around Kapil Dev and his Indian World Cup winning cricket team. I am playing a match spectator at the Oval and Tunbridge Wells cricket grounds
The production is shooting in the UK until end of the year. ‘83 will be released April 2020.
Short film revolving around identity and relationship boundaries.
They say the best way to learn is to go straight into the deep end. Sink or swim? It was the latter for me on this project thanks to the incredible Direction of Zachary Carruthers. This short is produced by Eliza Zandanel and the Central Film School in London. It centres around the relationship between a Alexi and her son Julian who’s worlds become turned upside down by the arrival of Chaviv.
My character Chaviv. skirts the line between love and power as he manipulates his lover Alexi and her son Julian, in more ways than one. I had to audition twice for the part and I had an amazing experience acting with Julie and Timotei Cobeanu.
His Mother’s Nakedness will be released in November 2019.
Filming on green screen for Vodafone and Adobe.
I had the opportunity to work with the OMG Media team in London for this commercial. We spent the day filming in Camden Studios. It was fantastic to experience filming on green screen! I can tell you that the popcorn was neither sweet or salted and rather stale.
A film exploring an unlikely romance between two strangers amidst the stunning backdrop of Hong Kong.
Aisha is an ambitious Indian girl and despairs when her father decides to cut short her studies abroad to get married. She contrives a boyfriend so she can complete her studies leaving her father to turn up unannounced in Hong Kong too meet Keiko. Aisha’s lover is far more real than she could ever have imagined…
I recently wrapped my scenes for this Bollywood short film with Director Sadie Granberg in Hong Kong. This is my first lead acting role and I had a brilliant time shooting with the super talented Hanisha Gianani as Aisha and Vimal Vaz as Aisha’s scary father!
Bollywood Short will be released late 2019.
Rowdy Baby with Rakhee.
A re-creation of hit Tamil song Rowdy Baby. The original has over 300m views on YouTube !
After creating fire in the studio with our first collaboration, this one was a no brainer! It was my first time dancing to Tamil music and I have to say it was incredibly refreshing. Rakhee pushed me in the studio and she came up with an excellent choreographed piece. The timing of the movements were perfected in the space of a few days.
We also spent time learning the Tamil lyrics so we could lip-sync! Check out Rakhee’s YouTube channel and other amazing videos.
Connect with Saaj Raja
![IMG-20190222-WA0025[1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5abb2a14c258b4f56d07e35e/1553088430800-GWP0HJDMT7E3ONUAFPLB/IMG-20190222-WA0025%5B1%5D.jpg)
![IMG-20190228-WA0006[1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5abb2a14c258b4f56d07e35e/1553088376821-8LCFIN8MQK25WW7KTNH1/IMG-20190228-WA0006%5B1%5D.jpg)
![IMG_20190221_135936[1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5abb2a14c258b4f56d07e35e/1553088510584-HOANIMF2PPPLSIS8UUQY/IMG_20190221_135936%5B1%5D.jpg)
![IMG_20190225_231740-01[1].jpeg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5abb2a14c258b4f56d07e35e/1553088427876-GIT3RP4O5K6FZTSLM0QA/IMG_20190225_231740-01%5B1%5D.jpeg)
![IMG-20190221-WA0061[1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5abb2a14c258b4f56d07e35e/1553088465624-37M1TC6MX281K4QK2K2Q/IMG-20190221-WA0061%5B1%5D.jpg)
![IMG_20190221_122825[1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5abb2a14c258b4f56d07e35e/1553088535085-ZUO218P5KGT5OYO7X2B7/IMG_20190221_122825%5B1%5D.jpg)