I came here to tell stories, to become a storyteller.
Story determination and compassion - how a guy from Ranavav, Porbandar comes to Mumbai to fulfill his dream of becoming a writer/director.
I am from Ranavav, a small town near Porbandar, Gujarat – Birth Place of Mahatma Gandhi. Love for movies is in my blood as my Grandfather was & father is a big movie buff. My father wanted to pursue film-making but that dream of his wasn't fulfilled, so he started doing photography.
I and my younger brother grew up playing with cameras, my other interests were dancing and storytelling, I used to tell imaginative stories to my brother. At a very young age, I knew that the movie industry is where I can fit in. I told this to my mother, though she knew very little about the industry, she supported me and said – ‘Kam karo, usi main karo, mehnat karo’.
I was 13, when I auditioned for the ‘Dance India Dance Season 2’. I had this constant feeling that time was running out. After my 10th exam, I told my father that I had to go out, to fulfill my dreams. He gave me 300 rupees considering I might come back in a day or two, but I had other plans. I left for Baroda and found work at Ramanand Sagar’s - Sagar Studio; I used to get ₹ 200 per day. I also started teaching dance to kids.
At 17 I landed in Mumbai with ₹ 15K and went straight to Andheri, at a house of someone I know through a contact, but they didn’t accept me. I was left with 2 options either to go back or try to fulfill my dreams in - the city of dreams. I chose the latter and went to Azad Nagar Bus Stop to spend a night, but I ended up spending a week there before I found a place in Goregaon. I used to live with 11 people in a small room, I started giving auditions, sometimes surviving on one meal & walking miles to save money, but got no work and in 2.5 months I left with no money.
Then, my experience in dancing comes to the rescue. I started doing theatre-to-theatre movie marketing the first promotion I did was for the movie ‘Kya Super Kool Hai Hum’ - we used to visit theatres & perform in front of an audience during intervals. During that stint, I got selected as a background dancer in Bhojpuri Movie, and then in ‘Balam Pichkari’ from ‘Ye Jawani Hai Deewani’. I start receiving work and got a chance to work with the legendary Saroj Khan, Prabhu Deva, Remo D'Souza. Then I worked as an Assistant Choreographer to Firoz Khan for the movie ‘Commando’.
In 2014, I started realising that I have not come here to become a dancer or choreographer. I came here to tell stories, to become a storyteller. My last movie as a background dancer was ‘Welcome Back’.”
I decided to learn the technique of storytelling, so I bought a laptop and a few books, which I thought would take a few weeks, took 2-3 years to learn ‘S’ of storytelling. I was getting no work and that made me depressed day by day, I used to roam around the city sometimes and shoot videos. During that phase in the Month of Ramzan, I shot a documentary - Mohammed Ali Road and uploaded it on YouTube, it got positive reviews and few awards.
In 2018, during a visit home; my younger brother who by the time started learning cinematography insisted on coming to Mumbai with me. I asked him to shoot a video and if it’s good enough I will take him along with me. We worked on an idea and with the help of cousins shot a short film –I was amazed by his cinematography skills. We named our short film – Little Wheels.
I managed to send Little Wheels to Humara Movies – a platform for short movies by Preeti Ali and Vinay Mishra, she liked the film and asked her executive producer Abhishek Gautam to get in touch with us. They wanted to acquire it. The movie got astonishing reviews and film schools started inviting me as a guest lecturer.
I wrote and directed the movie URIBO which got rave reviews. In 2020 I work as a screenplay writer and as part of Director’s team for the Disney Plus Hotstar web series Mukesh Jassos. Things were working fine, when the pandemic hits, like the whole world we were also confined to our home in lock down. During that time I wrote a few short stories.
However, as the situation and times require, I joined SportsKeeda as a video producer for their MMA division. My experience in film-making helped me produce some very good content; the response was such that from team of one editor my division became a team of 15-16 members.
When the situation eases out I reach out to Humara Movies, with story I wrote during the lock-down, they liked it and ready to produce it. Our short movie – Paani was recently released on Disney Plus Hotstar.
When I look back at my journey - of getting out of home with ₹ 300 and the release of Paani comes a sense of accomplishment and determination to work hard and achieve more."