Who is he? Why does he seem so familiar? Did we see him in some mythological TV serial? A flurry of questions pops up in the mind every time JCP Harshvardhan Shroff comes on screen in Hansal Mehta’s Netflix series Scoop. And the surprise when you discover it is Harman Baweja! Yes, the Bollywood hero who created a stir for being a Hrithik Roshan lookalike and made his film debut in 2008, with Priyanka Chopra as his leading lady.
Fifteen years later, it’s an unrecognisable Baweja — both in terms of physicality and acting skills — that director Mehta has presented to us in Scoop. We look back at the past and present of the 42-year-old actor-producer-writer who now has us waiting for his next screen outing.
Love Story 2050 and a blast from the past
Under his father Harry Baweja’s direction, Harman was launched as a hero with Love Story 2050, where he played Karan Malhotra, a young man who time-travels to save his love interest (played by Priyanka Chopra).
Harman’s film career began with constant comparisons to Hrithik Roshan, who was already a star by then, for the similarities in their looks, height, dancing abilities and names starting with the letter H. And more than his films, Harman was in the spotlight for his off-screen relationship with co-star Priyanka Chopra.
After Love Story 2050’s disastrous box office performance came Victory and What’s Your Raashee? (opposite Priyanka Chopra), both of which failed commercially. Following the triple debacle, Harman almost disappeared from the scene until Dishkiyaoon in 2014 where he played the lead and which, too, tanked at the box office. It’s My Life opposite Genelia D’Souza, releasing after a delay of about a decade, didn’t cut ice either. Harman hasn’t been active on social media and neither is he seen much at film events and shows.
Harman Baweja with Priyanka Chopra in the 2008 film Love Story 2050
Scoop and a powerful comeback
As JCP Harshvardhan Shroff, a top cop whose moral compass seems dubious, Harman delivers a knockout performance in Mehta’s six-episode web series Scoop streaming on Netflix with a screen presence that was never there in his earlier films.
JCP Shroff is a complex character and Harman surprises by highlighting each layer. Torn between the underworld-Mumbai police nexus, JCP Shroff is, at the same time, struggling to cope with the demands at work and his failing health. His inability to come to terms with his illness shows his humane side as he pushes himself in the gym and challenges a colleague. In the police uniform, Harman is equal parts intense, forbidding, self-assured and at ease in his skin.
With a penetrating gaze and calm-before-the-storm look on his face, Harman especially excels in the scenes where his JCP Shroff pursues journalist Jagruti Pathak (Karishma Tanna), indulging her with gifts and often making veiled and direct suggestions, creating a sexual tension that sometimes borders on predator-like behaviour.
What’s next for Harman Baweja
Harman is producing the Hindi remake of the hit Malayalam film The Great Indian Kitchen, starring Sanya Malhotra and with Arati Kadav of Cargo fame as the director. Harman is a dad too; he and health coach Sasha Ramchandani — whom he married in 2021 — had a baby boy in December 2022.
