HYDERABAD: Raj Rohit Reddy, an Indian filmmaker, quit his software job to pursue filmmaking in the year 2013 and has never looked back since. Originally from Hyderabad, the filmmaker grew up in Tirupati and went to the US in 2008 to pursue masters in computer science. He then moved to Los Angeles, the film capital, in 2013 and self-learned the process of filmmaking through various mediums on the internet.
Raj, who was inspired by Telugu movies, initially begin working on his friends’ films, “I used to help them on sets and that’s when I wanted to make my own short films. I then started writing scripts and sending them to film festivals.
As I began to win awards, I felt confident that I can write and direct good stuff.” Raj said. Currently pursuing a course in filmmaking from UCLA, Raj is a full-time filmmaker. He wrote and directed his very first movie “The Shrink” in 2016 with a minimal budget and just 3 characters, and no formal training. “The first thing you do is really special”, Raj said, adding that his first experiences of making a film made “The
Shrink” his favorite among all the movies he’s made.
The Shrink was aired in NDTV in 2016 and his second film “How does that make you feel” became the first short film by an Indian to be screened at TCL Chinese Theatre. The movie was witnessed by Academy Award winner Ruth Carter and Emmy winner Robby Reed. His latest film Toxique is in pre-production, but the script itself has was a lot of awards like best screenplay and best script at several film festivals. So far Raj used his own money for his short films. He now plans to promote and crowdfund his latest, as he believes that “People want to watch award-winning scripts as movies”.
“With scripts, you have a lot of creative freedom, you can write down all the ideas you have”, adding that script writing is his favourite part of the film making process. Raj is now planning to make a full-length feature film. The member of the jury of the 5 Continents International Film Festival, urges people to pursue their interests saying that “You’ll never know how good you are until you do something”.