Boy in India sues company for commercial in which villain has same first name

NEW DELHI (AP) - An 11-year-old Indian boy is suing a website, arguing that a television commercial for the company has dirtied his name - the very common Hari.
In the offending ad, a man makes a dinner reservation for his obviously obnoxious boss, named Hari Sadu, by saying: "That's H for Hitler, A for Arrogant, R for Rascal and I for ... Idiot."

The ad for Naukri.com, which helps people find jobs, ends with the line: "Guess who's just heard from us."

But Hari Bhanot doesn't find it funny - or at least he hasn't since classmates started calling him Hitler.

"When I first saw the ad, I was like OK. But when everyone started teasing me, I felt really bad," he told the NDTV Profit business news channel. "They said, 'hi, Hitler,' and used abusive words."

After asking Nakuri.com to stop running the ad and getting no response, Hari's father, Aneesh Bhanot, said the family decided to sue the company for $225,000 US.

"Then we got two responses," said Aneesh Bhanot. "One was a box of chocolates from the (advertising) team."

It wasn't enough, and he said they planned to press ahead with the lawsuit.

Naukri.com, for its part, said it wasn't pulling the ad, noting that the first name Hari was very common.

"From our perspective, this is a work of fiction. The characters are fictional," Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Naukri.com's CEO told NDTV Profit.

Bhikchandani said they had searched through phone books and the Internet to make sure there was no one named Hari Sadu before shooting the advertisement.

"So we were certain that this commercial has nothing to do with any person living or dead," he said.

© The Canadian Press, 2006