Kids & Family
Maryland Native Wins Best Doritos Commercial in $1 Million Super Bowl Contest
Raj Suri of Ellicott City produced the 30-second commercial 'Time Machine.'
An Ellicott City native who dabbles in film produced the $1 million prize-winning Doritos commercial, which aired during Sunday night's Super Bowl.
Raj Suri, 39, shot the commercial "Time Machine" in Arizona, where he now lives and works as a systems analyst at Intel.
"Time Machine" was the third entry for Suri and director Ryan Andersen—whom he described as a "director/friend/lover of value meals"—in the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Contest.
The inspiration for "Time Machine" came from Andersen's son, who wanted his own time machine after watching Back to the Future, Suri said in an interview with Virginia Tech.
A small crew shot the 30-second Doritos spot at Andersen's parents house, with the family dog making a cameo, Suri told WBAL.
The commercial aired during the first half of the Super Bowl, according to The Baltimore Sun. It was one of two finalists in the Doritos contest to get air time; one was the $1 million contest winner, while the other was a Doritos staff pick.
On Monday morning, Good Morning America revealed that "Time Machine" was the winner of the $1 million check from Doritos.
"Congrats to #HoCoMD native @raj_suri!" Howard County Executive Ken Ulman wrote on Twitter following the announcement.
Suri, who grew up in Howard County and graduated from Centennial High School, moved to Arizona for a job but told Patch most of his family lives in Howard County.
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"I will probably live my life just as I did before this all happened," Andersen said on the radio. "I have no intentions on blowing money. I've got other fish to fry in life."
Suri did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Representatives from "Time Machine" and "Cowboy Kid" (the Doritos staff pick), will get to work on the set of the upcoming Marvel movie The Avengers: The Age of Ultron.
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