Check Out Shardul Sharma’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shardul Sharma.

Hi Shardul, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am an Independent film producer settled in Los Angeles. I was born and raised in Mumbai – India, in a very traditional and conservative middle/ working-class family. With no ties to films or entertainment industry, it was a tough decision, but I am very thankful to my family for supporting my decision to work in the entertainment industry. More than anyone it was my mother who encouraged me the most to follow my passion and not fear anything in life. I had never planned to leave India and move to the United States; in fact, I was very happy doing what I was doing in India. It was a few friends in Indian film industry and my mentor Shiamak Davar, who encouraged me to take the leap of faith and start my career in Hollywood.

I started my producing career with an internship at Ashok Amritrajʼs production company Hyde Park Entertainment in 2012. That was my first job in LA and right after that, I started producing films on my own. It was tough initially but I never gave up and continued doing whatever I could with the resources I had. Like everyone else, I started with short films, student films, films with absolutely no budget and gradually with time, I started getting better work. Now after 5 feature films, few short films, music videos and several ads & commercials, I can say I am doing decently as a Producer. It’s a long way to go but I am happy with my journey so far. I had the opportunity to work for studios like Paramount Pictures including my short time at Viacom and at the moment I am working as a Senior Producer with ATTN, one of the most known names in media production for social networks and digital media world.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It was never an easy journey and even now after so many years of work it’s still not a smooth road. It’s constant hard work and a lot of learning and relearning the new ways of the industry. Times are much easier now with diversity inclusion and equal opportunity but ten years ago it wasn’t like this at all. It was really tough being an immigrant and person of color to find work and be accepted. I would almost always hear that why do we need a Non-American person to lead the production of an American-based story. It’s way different now, diversity inclusion has become a big thing and the doors that were closed for us have now slowly started opening up.

Also, this industry is a tough a place, just to survive here is a challenge in itself. With challenging and uncertain times like right now, it’s only getting more difficult. You need to constantly adapt to the new changes, that’s one of the major reasons I moved to short-form media content from traditional long-form content. Prior to Covid, I had only worked in films but during Covid all movie productions were shut, social media became huge and digital content became everything. Hence I immediately decided to move on and relearn the art of filmmaking but this time with short-form media.

It was never an easy journey, but I am very grateful for what I achieved in the time I have spent in this career.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At the moment, I am working a lot on commercials and advertisements. I am working as a senior producer at ATTN which is a very well-known company in the digital media and social media world. My daily work includes overseeing and managing film shoots in a variety of formats, including major client-sponsored content, original series, and editorial content. Managing the production schedule, budget, hiring all crew members, negotiating and signing deals with all the vendors, dealing with cast & crew and financial paperwork, dealing with sales agents and festival programmers is a part of my day-to-day routine. I am proud of the fact that I could establish myself and find a place for myself in this part of the world. My background of growing up in a country with such high traditional values, color, music & dance and diversity, I try to bring all of that in my work, which does my work different from many others. I try to add value to each and every job that I take on or have an opportunity to work on. I grew up watching movies like Terminator, Rambo, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Training Day, etc. and I never thought life will give me an opportunity to work with filmmakers who actually made these movies. So while I was at Paramount Pictures and I had an opportunity to work with filmmakers like Ang Lee, Antoine Fuqua and Tom Cruise, which will forever be my most proud moments.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I strongly believe in taking risks but calculated risks. I think as a person I prepare a lot and I want to know the odds regardless of the situation hence I always believe in myself and never fear risks.

It was a major risk to leave my all set career back home in India and to move here to start all over again. But I knew if I invest a few years and work hard to make my place in the industry here, I will move way ahead in my career. I had a choice to either stay in my comfort zone, with my family support at home and continue my hustle in Bollywood or move to a completely new world of Hollywood where I don’t know anyone and hustle here but the difference was if I become something here in Hollywood then I am already someone in Bollywood not the other way around. So regardless of the risk and challenges, I chose investing my time to hustle in a place where I knew I will definitely grow faster. I thought if I have to make my mark in the industry, then I will have to change my approach that is different, new and better than what was already happening. Today, I am glad I made that decision because now after ten years, I have had the opportunity to work at some major film studios and entertainment agencies in the world.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shardulssharma/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shardul.sharma.25
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5558729/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0