How Indian National Addy Raj Came To Manila & Got To Be One Of The Leads In GMA-7's New Primetime Show, 'Meant To Be'.

ADDY RAJ is being officially introduced in "Meant to Be" as one of Barbie Forteza's four leading man. He was an exchange student at the Ateneo when he met a talent scout who asked him to join ABS-CBN's singing contest for foreigners, "I Love OPM". "I auditioned and I passed," he says. "But I didn't win. I only made it up to the top 24. But because of that, I learned how to speak Tagalog because I was made to sing a Tagalog song."

Born in New Delhi, India on August 30, 1995, his full name is Adhiraj Gaur. "My screen name now is from my real first name, na ginawang Addy Raj. I never really planned to join showbiz. I took up graphic website design at the University of New Delhi and after graduation, I had an offer from MTV India but I wanted to go out of India and work in another Asian country. I enjoyed my stay here in the Philippines so much, so I decided to come back here. I had a contract with ABS-CBN then but it has expired and then GMA had a better offer, a lead role in 'Meant to Be', so I grabbed it."


He's now living alone in a rented apartment. "I haven't even met the local Indian community here, so I have very few friends."

But does he know that the image of Indians or Bumbays here is as the main source of 5-6 money lending? "Yes and I was so surprised. People will come up and tell me they want to borrow money from me, so I'd tell them, I'm not rich. Dito lang yan, kasi hindi naman kami ganyan sa India."

His family remains in New Delhi. His dad is a forest environmental officer and his mom is a
housewife. He has an older sister. His mom and sister have visited him here in Manila and are very supportive of his showbiz career. He is now enjoying taping "Meant to Be". "Everyone is nice on the set. So relaxed and light sa taping. And I'm also making new friends with all my co-stars. Someday, I plan to take all my family to live here."

"Meant to Be" starts airing tonight on GMA-7 and comes right after "Alyas Robin Hood". We told the show's very stylish program manager, Hazel Abonita, that this might be a late slot for the young fans of Barbie. "Hindi naman," she replies. "Na-develop na ng GMA ang slot na yan for this kind of romantic comedy, like in 'Because of You' nina Gabby Concepcion and Carla Abellana, and 'Juan Happy Love Story' nina Heart Evangelista and Dennies Trillo, which are both topraters. So we're confident na magiging mataas din ang rating ng 'Meant to Be' na talaga namang mai-in love ang viewers sa character ni Barbie as Billie at ng four leading men niya."
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