He was born in Bileća in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but mainly lived and worked in Zagreb, with the Croatian and wider Yugoslav productions.

Born in Bileća in Herzegovina, in what was then Yugoslavia,[1] he went to study painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb.

[2] He had his screenwriting debut in 1952 with the animated film The Haunted Castle at Dudinci (Croatian: Začarani dvorac u Dudincima), directed by Dušan Vukotić.

[1] In the 1970s and 1980s his output was lower, but in spite of this he won the Golden Arena for Best Director for his 1979 film Journalist (Novinar).

[3] Hadžić also wrote and directed the 1972 film, The Deer Hunt (Lov na jelene), starring Boris Dvornik and Silvana Armenulić, a subversive thriller-drama about an émigré suspected of Ustasha activity, which was timely and popular because of its relation to the Croatian Spring.