We had the good fortune of connecting with Amol Ramani and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amol, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
Growing up, I was always considered to be a problem child. I would refuse to conform to set standards, I’d always love to find workarounds, take the road less travelled. As I grew older, I realized that the problem wasn’t me, in fact it wasn’t anyone. People who play it safe aren’t wrong, they would rather go for the more secure option where returns are guaranteed. Me? I know my formulae but I refuse to be formulaic. I love taking risks. That’s partly because I don’t see risk as a taboo. To me, it is a way of discovering something new about myself that I wouldn’t be able to otherwise. When I decided to switch career paths from engineering to filmmaking at the age of 23, it was a risk. At 27, when I decided to try out acting, it was a risk. I wasn’t a fresh young face. I knew I wasn’t the norm. But I was committed to it, and that’s when risk tends to pay off. If it doesn’t, I hear you, there’s always the safer options to fall back on. But until I live and breathe, I am a strong advocate for risk taking. We’re here for a good time, not a long time, might as well do the unthinkable, take that step and make taking risks, the next big thing!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
To talk about my ‘art’ would be a little disingenuous, because I’m still discovering my voice. What I can definitely talk about is my process, one of discovery. Every challenge I face or set for myself is with the intent to discover something new about myself. It’s what fuels my drive, gets me out of bed every morning. I get to explore various aspects of human psychology through the characters I build. More so than anything, it helped me deal with my insecurities about being on camera. Once I stopped worrying about looking good, I was able to focus on the story that I was helping to create. It wasn’t easy, to put my head down and work with no expectation of any returns. But if you do it long enough, it becomes a habit and at that point you have overcome these obstacles that seemed to be world ending at the start. What that translates to, is humility and a respectful regard for every single individual that works on a set. Being considerate isn’t a task, and it goes a long way towards building wonderful networks for your journey ahead. I never saw myself as an actor, and yet here I am today. My story has one key takeaway, if you put the work in, you will get what you set out to achieve, End of the day, we have our stories, we are our stories. How we choose to tell them, is entirely up to us.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh my word! That would be a dream come true. If we had a week, realistically, I would first and foremost take them to all the restaurants, and make them try my favorite foods. Mariella’s Tacos near LAX, Pink’s Hotdogs, JINYA Ramen Bar, The Melt burger, Nugtown, to name a few. I’d also love to take them to Venice Beach, Ranco Palos Verdes, Joshua Tree National Park, Mt. Baldy. It’s a huge list but I’m a go-getter so I’d definitely get it done. These are my favorites for sure.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Where do I even begin? There are so many people without whom I wouldn’t be where I am today but if we’re to narrow it down, I’d like to begin with a key figure from my childhood. My English teacher from school, Mrs. Kalpana Ved. She always believed in me and that developed my love for storytelling. Then come my friends; high school, college, my boys. Every time I felt stuck in life, every time I’ve needed an ear to be heard, a shoulder to cry, they’ve been there for me. They’re the biggest reason I’m in LA today. And last but not the least, the ones who don’t need a shoutout but deserve one. My parents. Ever supportive, ever growing, ever learning right by my side. Like I said, I was a problem child and I was a handful to deal with. They never gave up. They had their questions but more importantly, they always understood. I am who I am because of all of these beautiful people, I am for them, I am by them, I am eternally grateful.

Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11044953/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amolramani

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amolramani

Other: https://insiderstales.blogspot.com

Image Credits
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