Meet Niraj Pancholi | Writer, Director, Author

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

Hi Niraj, what are you inspired by?
I’m inspired by people who create something I haven’t seen or experienced before. I believe that creativity is blending existing materials and presenting them in your own unique way. It has to be very individualistic. This means that only one person who grew up in those circumstances, with those beliefs and views, could have created this unique thing. Recent examples of this would be James Cameron’s Avatar movies. The first movie was a classic story of deeper spiritual awakening and finding your place in society. That’s the existing material. But it was blended with the new world of Pandora’s Forests, which I hadn’t seen before. The second movie was a classic story of family survival, but it was blended with Pandora’s Oceans, which I hadn’t seen before either. If you study the life of James Cameron, which I have, you will realize that both of these works are individual to him. Only he could have thought of this very specific world blended with these very specific story types that speak to him. So, I am working on my stories that uniquely represent my beliefs, views, and dreams. A culmination of everything I am so far in my life. My short film Cosmic Light is an example of that. Now, it may sound very easy to do, but if you look at the current list of movies, you will realize most often, the stories and worlds are not unique to the creator. So it is actually very hard to do this. But that’s great because people will only value what was hard to make.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I want to create stories and concepts that are new and unique, and yet they should feel familiar. We buy a movie ticket, get a streaming membership, or read a new book because we want to get transported to something new and fresh and feel something in our hearts. I am learning every day. I am better than what I have already created because I have learned from my mistakes.

I am very proud of my sci-fi short film Cosmic Light. The film won Gold Remi at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival and was a Semi-Finalist at the Columbus International Film and Animation Festival. It was also selected at several notable places, such as the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival and the Long Island International Film Expo. Plus, the comments I received from the audience at the theatres during the festival run and the ones I keep receiving on YouTube have been very encouraging.

I am now excited about my upcoming middle-grade fantasy adventure novel. I am applying everything I have learned since I made the short film to my novel. The novel is a more ambitious project because I am creating a new fantasy world with its unique geography, climate, history, economy, societal structures, flora and fauna, evolution of the species, magic power systems, etc. I am tackling an age group for my protagonist, which I haven’t done before, and a new theme that I haven’t done before, either. So, it is an overwhelming amount of work, but it is also fun and easy to do. I cannot play golf, and I cannot cook a tasty meal. But this. This is something I can do. This is something I feel confident in.

I also have a feature project for Cosmic Light, which is inspired by my short film, but it does not have the same story or characters. This is a huge project along the lines of E.T. meets Romeo and Juliet. I have worked with three concept artists and have developed nine high-quality concept art and have also written the screenplay. Recently, the feature screenplay received several accolades. It was a Semi-Finalist at the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival for best screenplay. This is an Acadamy Award Qualifying, BAFTA Qualifying, and Canadian Screen Award Qualifying film festival. The screenplay also became a Quarter-Finalist at the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Diversity Initiative. It also received an Official Selection at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival, which is a Canadian Screen Awards Qualifying film festival. So I am really proud of these achievements. I have a connection with an executive at a streamer to pitch this project to potential producers and executives. So I am working on that. It is a challenge to get access to the right producer to pitch, but we are trying. I am very excited about this project!

One important thing I have learned along the way about the film industry is that no matter how good you are as a creative, if you don’t have the support of a decision-making person at a studio, you cannot get far. I have studied the lives of many successful creatives in the film industry, and I have seen time and time again that they all came across one executive or a decision-maker at a studio who saw their potential before others in the industry did. And it all sounds very obvious in retrospect when the creative becomes successful. But if you think about it, the studio executive potentially risked his or her career to give an opportunity to a new creative. It is not an easy decision for the studio executive when huge amounts of money are at risk. I deeply respect these executives who have an eye for a diamond in the rough and know how to clean and polish it and showcase it to the world. All creatives need a jeweler like that. Now, meeting this right person is akin to winning a lottery. All you can do is buy a lottery, but you have no control over winning it. So, working on your craft, creating new work, and networking with people in the industry is like buying lottery tickets. There is no guarantee of winning the lottery, but you can only win it if you buy it in the first place.

I feel what has helped me thus far in my career is my optimism and ‘never give up’ attitude.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
There are more exciting places to visit in Los Angeles than anyone can ever finish in a lifetime! But there are a few places I would take my friend.

There is a three-story Barnes and Noble at the Grove near Farmer’s Market. It is not just a store, it is a monument. Get to the third floor and look down at the store. There is more knowledge in front of your eyes than you can ever collect in your mind. It is a surreal experience.

Then go to Mashti Malone for ice cream. This is not a regular franchise. This is Mashti. And that means unique, real flavors of Persian ice cream. Try kid scoops so that you can taste several flavors. My favorite is dulce de leche.

But your trip to LA is not finished until you visit a beach. But which beach? There are many beaches in LA, but no one has the grandness and the vast visual scope of a David Lean film like Santa Monica Beach. In the late evening, when you walk on the pier and see the massive sea before you and the bright city behind you, you feel the unlimited possibilities that Los Angeles has to offer.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
When I was six years old, my mother showed me an ant trying to climb up a wall with a very rough surface. She asked me to look closely. The ant kept falling, but still, it kept trying again and again and was finally able to reach the top. She told me that life would be like that wall. Rough and uneven. But if I keep trying like that ant, I will reach my destination one day. I told my mom it was very boring to watch an ant trying to climb a wall. Try it. You will find it boring too. But this may have incepted a notion in my head to never give up. Making my short film Cosmic Light was the hardest thing I have ever done. Even harder than my four years of Engineering put together. There were so many moments when it was logical to give up, but I didn’t. Later, when I finished the project, I wondered why I kept going. My guess is that it was because of the teachings of my mom when I was growing up. So, shoutout to my mom.

There were many people who worked on my short Cosmic Light, and I am thankful to each and every one of them.

But I do want to mention a few key individuals. I want to shoutout to my lead actors, Jake Bucher, Gary Sturm, Jason-Shane Scott, and Shirley Cortez. They were all very easy to work with and were very supportive of me. When actors support the director, half the stress of working on the set is already gone. A shoutout to my composer, Matthew Lang, and Sound Designer, Bernardo Passarinho, who worked closely with me on this project and supported that I wanted to do something new and fresh with music and sound on this film. Which meant it was a very difficult project. And yet they didn’t give up and worked very hard on this project. Bringing new sound styles and melodies to the film made the film familiar yet alien. I use a lot of sound and music in my storytelling. I already have some notion of how the music and sound will play a role during the writing stage. So, I am very thankful for these two hard-working geniuses.

A sci-fi film is not sci-fi without the science-fiction elements in it. If you were to watch the film without the VFX, it wouldn’t even make any sense. On top of that, this film has sci-fi concepts, which you won’t find in any other film. That’s because I invented them. And so, it was challenging to create the VFX for this project. There weren’t any tutorials or assets my VFX team could learn from or download. They had to put in months of research and development before even a single shot could have been produced. All they had at their disposal was the concept art I had created with a concept designer during the pre-production, my detailed notes on the concept, and my drawings. However, I had faith in my VFX team. I knew they would be able to deliver it eventually. It was just a matter of us working hard. And so, after about eight to nine months of working day and night with me, they not only delivered my vision but also enhanced it in several places. For that, I am thankful to Prakash Mehta, Amal Singha, and Subrato Adhikary. They are the team of Luma Pixels, which is a company based in India.

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