Sai Gundewar

Sai Gundewar (born as Saiprasad Gundewar; February 22, 1978) is an Indian actor, model, voiceover artist and an entrepreneur. His popularity rose in 2010 after his participation in the hit Reality TV show MTV Splitsvilla, Season 4.
That also led to him participating in the Indian franchise of the American hit Reality show, Survivor on Star Plus India, in the year 2011. He is perhaps best known for appearing in movies such as David (2013) and I, Me Aur Main (2013). He has also starred in many TVCs on Indian Television. He also happens to be one of the co-founders of Foodizm - a healthy religion, a healthy meal delivery service in Mumbai, India.
Early life
Sai was born in Nagpur, India. He moved to Mumbai at the age of 3. His parents got divorced when he was very young and then few years later his father remarried. He grew up with his parents and meets his biological mother from time to time.
His step-mother, Rajshree Gundewar use to be a school teacher and now a house wife and his father, Rajeev Gundewar worked as a Marketing Manager for one of India's oldest ceiling fan manufacturing company.
He is retired now and likes to spend his time consulting people on Investments and Insurance. Sai by his own admission says, "Women have played a very important role in my life and all I know about them and respecting them, I owe it to my step-mother." Throughout his schooling years, Sai remained involved with theatrical and cultural activities, regularly participating in dramas, dance competitions, elocution and sports. He did his schooling from St. Aloysius High School in Bandra, Mumbai and was known as Saiprasad throughout his schooling years. He did his Bachelors in Commerce from R.D. National College, Bandra, Mumbai and that's when he shortened his name and was known as Sai amongst his friends during his intercollegiate years, instead of Saiprasad, which he always thought was too long and not so 'cool'. His family till dates addresses him as Prasad.
Career
In the year 1999, Sai moved to Australia to study Masters in Information Technology at the Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW. During his university years he did a lot of odd summer jobs in order to pay his tuition fees and to cover living expenses such as waiting tables, working as a security guard, working on farms, fruit picking, working as a cleaner in supermarkets etc. That phase of his life taught him to be independent and self-reliant. After graduation, he moved to Sydney in search of greener pastures. Over the years, he worked his way up from working at call centres, various advertising and media companies and then finally making his way to Australia's directories (Yellow Pages & White Pages) leader, Sensis as an Account Manager. (www.sensis.com.au). That wasn't enough and Sai said to himself back then, "I am doing great at work, have a beautiful house, drive a nice car, but that isn't making me happy. What does make me happy is facing the camera and hear the word 'Action' !" Due to his early involvement in dramatics during his schooling years and growing up in Bollywood, he always had this dream to be an actor par excellence. This thought led to him wanting to hone his craft and there began the search for a perfect Acting School and it ended by him enrolling with Clarence White from The Actors Studio, Australia and also with American Actor / Coach Mirren Lee. Having studied at Actors studio for almost 3 years, he wanted to broaden his horizon and the next obvious stop was LA. In 2006, he went there to study at the TVI Actors Studio, Sherman Oaks and had the opportunity to learn from the best, such as Vincent Guastaferro, Nick Anderson, Zora DeHorter, Ryan Glasgow, Randy Becker etc. Having spent half a year in LA and with moderate success, he decided to move back to India to pursue his acting career in the year 2007, due to not being able to obtain the Green Card or a Visa to work legally in the US. Since then he went on to play cameos in films such as Yuvvraaj, Rock On!!, I, Me aur Main, P.K., David etc. and acted in many TVCs. His determination and his unique look landed him on popular reality shows such as MTV India's Splitsvilla Season 4, in which he was one of the finalist and Star Plus India's Survivor India, Season 1, where he went a long way. He considers himself fortunate enough to have worked with people and industry stalwarts such as Subhash Ghai, Abhishek Kapoor, Abhinay Deo, Pradeep Sarkar, Bejoy Nambiar, Rajkumar Hirani and many more.
Personal life
Sai was named after the famous Indian saint Sai Baba as his parents are his huge devotees. Sai Baba is revered all over India, hence Sai's birth was kind of perceived as the former's blessing to his family. Being the only child, he has always been very close to his parents and grandparents and considers himself a family oriented man. In response to, if he's the only child or does he have a sibling, he always jokes by saying, "After I was born, my parents didn't want anymore kids as I was a handful; once bitten, twice Sai." In his free time Sai likes to read, watch a lot of movies and American televison shows, listen to variety of music and travel. He is also a food connoisseur and loves to cook, eat and feed his family and friends. Besides being a foodie, Sai is also an avid fitness freak and has been into weight training for over 15 years. He has also recently ventured into MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) with Shafiq-ur-rehman at Xtreme Fight Federation, Mumbai.
He has grown up on Indian and American movies and consider actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Robert Deniro, Al Pacino, Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, Will Smith as his idols and source of inspiration. He often jokes about wanting to be India's answer to Diesel and Statham due to his bald, buffed and athletic look. Sai aspires to work both in Bollywood as well as in Hollywood, as he truly believes that the world is becoming smaller day by day and it's just a matter of time before artists from both these industries work with each other.
Sai has had an interesting love life and have had some fascinating and challenging relationships over the years, yet he refuses to give up on the idea of love and believes that one must rise and not fall in love. He is also very spiritual and when accused of being a player, he simply smiles and says that he is playful and that there is a difference. A lot of his thoughts are reflected in this column called Saizmmms that he has published on his facebook profile and his website.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu