Today we’d like to introduce you to Suds.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Reading a question like this always floods my head with thoughts of the past. It makes me quiver. I never know where to start. Everyone gets engrossed in the sob story of how my father left my mom and I in South Africa in order to raise my half siblings in New Zealand. Or the uplifting story of how my mother raised me by herself, through her own hardships, and supported me to become and engineer all the way through college in the United States and United Kingdom. But I never became the engineer I’d studied my whole life to become, yet she still supports me till this today.
My story is as much my mother’s as it is mine. I never had any siblings growing up, through no fault of my mother’s haha. But I did have a lot of cousins, over 60 that I know of. My great-grandparents seemed to have had a lot of free time. I always loved our large family gatherings when I was little. The food, the music and the atmosphere instilled something in me that I cannot put into words. Friends and family coming together, not for a celebrational event, but to unite our souls. Little did they know they were my first audience. Cultivating my love to entertain. I would revel in the spotlight, dancing like Michael Jackson, performing magic tricks and making jokes. Seeing the smiles and laughs on their faces created a warm fuzzy feeling in me that I didn’t understand. And one that I never explored.
Ethnically I’m Indian, and the stereotype of Indians in South Africa is that they become Doctors, Lawyers or Engineers. So, due to our heritage of getting a “respected” job, I never pursued the artistic side of me after primary school. In high school I never audition for plays. Never performed live music. And never joined that dance class. I vividly remember walking towards the dance building, looking through the open door, seeing all the dancers talking, and just as I was about to step in, in a split second, I made a decision to turn around and walk away. I was afraid. Afraid of what people will think. I don’t know why but I was. This changed when I got to college.
Maybe it was being far away from home, away from the stereotypes. Whatever it was, when I got to College in Pennsylvania I flourished. But it wasn’t instant. After the first year of engineering, I decided I wanted to leave that degree behind to explore this artistic side of me. After a tough, thoughtful talk with my mom, we both agreed it was best for me. I switched to Film and suddenly I found myself doing everything I was afraid to do back in South Africa. And I did it well. I started my YouTube Channel, BAREFOOT SUDS. I helped film my friend’s short film, Wrote, directed, acted in and edited my own short film called Final Thoughts. Got a job working as a content creator for my college, self-taught myself flamenco guitar for fun, and also won 2 Talent shows by dancing. At the end of it I came out with a Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Production. But to me the bigger accomplishments was what I mentioned above, and the friends I made along the way. Many of which I am still in contact with today.
After college I decided with 5 days left on my lease in Pennsylvania that I wanted to move to Los Angeles California. Because if not now, when? After booking the flight, selling a bunch of my belongings I was on the way. While on the plane I found a hostel to live in for a month. Thankfully the plane had Wi-Fi. But I was too thankful too soon. After enduring bed bugs, clogged sinks, broken showers, schizophrenic, people, racist people and all else Downtown Figueroa Street has to offer, I managed to find the place I’m currently living in Hollywood. Here I met some of the best creatives I know, most of which I am working with as I write this.
That’s as brief as I can make my story. Packing 24 years of life into a short story isn’t easy. There are many life changing moments and people that are left out. But those people know who they are and just know that I am always thinking about you all. I owe my mom everything and I’d give her the world if I could. This story is as much hers as it is mine. I still call her everyday till this day.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think the hardest challenge is being so far away from home. Especially my mom’s food haha. But seriously, missing family weddings and significant moments really sucks. Not being able to take care of and be taken care of by your family is hard. There is no crutch. But I’m grateful for technology being able to connect us over continents.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I chose other so I could talk about both my Employee/Professional work and Artist/Creative work. This is because mine somewhat overlaps. I currently work as a Multimedia Specialist at WD Strategies. This involves skills such as filming interviews and company ads, web-design, social media management, video editing, motion graphic creation and graphic design. This is done through tools like Webflow, Wix, Adobe Premiere Pro, Davinci Resolve, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop. Most of these skills overlap with my YouTube video creation such as the editing process and thumbnail creation. I have developed a lot of my filming skills through this YouTube Channel with my biggest video getting 83k views and my biggest TikTok video getting 14 million views (which has since been archived).
What matters most to you? Why?
The cliche answer is my health, my mom and my family. Which in order for me to take care of I would love to have the financial freedom to retire my family. My non cliche answer is legacy. I want to leave a legacy, whether it is through a film or my YouTube channel, I want to leave something meaningful behind for when I am long gone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://suds-portfolio.webflow.io/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barefoot_suds/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudhakar-arran/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@barefootsuds
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@barefoot_suds
