Bunty Sajdeh's Long Game: Why He Signs On Talent Before the Market Does

Mumbai: Bunty Sajdeh's reputation in the sports and entertainment business rests less on managing already established names, and more on the calls he made before those names were established.

Over more than two decades in the industry, working his way up through different roles before eventually striking out on his own, he built his understanding of the business around one recurring instinct, which was recognising commercial potential before it becomes obvious to everyone else.

That instinct became the foundation of Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment, which he founded in 2008 with the support and encouragement of two of his closest friends and early clients, Yuvraj Singh and Sushmita Sen, both of whom backed him at a stage when the agency was still an idea rather than an institution.

That instinct has since become the basis of how Cornerstone evaluates and builds long term value for the talent it represents. Rather than signing names once they are already commercially proven, the agency's approach has been to assess a person's potential early, build a brand strategy around where their career could go rather than where it currently stands, and stay invested through the years it takes for that value to materialise. It is a model that requires the agency to take on more risk upfront, but one that Bunty has consistently backed as the more sustainable way to build both a talent's career and the business around it.

For him, the process has never been about chasing whoever happens to be trending in a given moment. It is a longer, more deliberate read of a person, assessing not just current form but temperament, staying power, and whether someone has what it takes to still matter a decade and a half down the line. That kind of evaluation demands a patience most in the business don't have the appetite for, which is precisely what has defined Cornerstone's approach to talent management since its earliest days, built less on reacting to stardom, and more on recognising it before it has a name.