Daily Inspiration: Meet Jahruneel Rai (J.T.Rai)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jahruneel Rai (J.T.Rai).

Hi Jahruneel, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
When I was younger, I remember watching so many movies, I realized I wanted to do something with film and tv. I had always been interested in storytelling, I felt that becoming a great storyteller meant being able to connect better with others. As I grew up I also realized how much I cared about other people. I loved being able to form connections and make friends with people. I was raised to be kind and to care. So I grew an interest in psychology and how people behave. People can come from so many walks of life, and understanding that on more than just a surface level is important. I realized that when I was a teenager. As I went to high school and then University, I took the route of majoring in psychology. I used what I learnt in the classroom to improve my writing. It helped to build characters and scenes. It helped to understand how point A gets to Point B and eventually to point Z. Most importantly it helped teach me how to put things into perspective. I made a few short films, chose the stage name J.T.Rai, I went ahead just making as much as I could. I made sure to become good at everything. Writing, producing, cinematography you name it, I learned it. I worked hard and placed myself in the creative space so that I could put out work that created community and connection amongst everyone. I thrive on connecting people. Surprisingly I am not an extrovert, I am an introvert. But I do like talking to people and making communities. In my university you would see me in an animation class, film class or even a graphic design class. I even made friends in the business, computer science, fashion and game departments. I would connect as many people as I could as well. I felt connection and community is the most important thing. Even being nervous, you always have to try and connect. No matter how terrifying it is. During my final year in university, I started my own study. I would collect results and analyse data, it is a requirement as a psychology major. My thesis was a study on how movie reviews affected the behavior of individuals. While doing my thesis I would also have to enter my study into the Western Psychological Association (WPA) Annual convention. It was three months of waiting before I had heard that I got in and could go present my findings at this convention. When I did, someone came up to me, asked to publish my study, so that’s exactly what I did. A week later someone from the University of Washington, Tacoma wanted to collaborate and expand the study, and that is currently what is happening right now. Along with that I have been writing more scripts, gearing up to make more short films. I plan to keep making and to push the boundaries on creativity as much as possible. Because that is what creativity is. It is pushing the limit and breaking it to make something that matters to you.

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?
Like the rest of life, there has been ups and downs. But the main obstacle was never if there was equipment or oppurtunity. The biggest obstacle was myself. It was hard to push past my fears of success. I think we all have the fear of success because we don’t know what comes after. Some projects people plan for years, I know i used to just plan and plan and never make anything. On the surface I used excuses like “I dont have the oppurtunity or time right now” but deep down it was because I was scared of what comes after. What would I do once this project was done? I realized though, that after one project another one always gets made. Creativity is a never ending fountain, and once I understood I could always create more and more, I stopped being scared. I saw more oppurtunity after this realization, there is always oppurtunity, sometimes you just have to either make it or allow yourself to see it.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am known for my art, my paintings captured a lot of eyes when I was in high school. I was always making these huge paintings the size of me and adding almost this horror twist to it. People called me “horror Picasso” a lot. My scripts as well, people loved reading the scripts I wrote because they would always tell me “it felt real” that it felt safe to relate to the character. I loved horror a lot, my family doesnt like it as much but I always loved horror movies. Same reason why I studied psychology, horror was always interesting because it connected with people in a certain way. It is never meant to only scare (or in some cases disgust) people. Horror is in one way, the oppurtunity to safely experience the pure raw primal fear that makes us human. The situations range from bizarre to realistic, but there is always some form of message delivered in film and horror mainly has some of the heavier ones. So I mostly wrote horror with the idea in mind that, it can tell the darkest truth in a palatable way for the audience. I later leaned towards writing superhero and fantasy scripts

The idea of bringing the impossible to life is what people loved, the spin I would always give to the stories. But what always stuck with people is how well the characters would be written. It boosted my confidence knowing that I wrote characters that mean a lot to people. They were always drawn in by how the characters interacted with the environment and each other. A lot of people liked the way I wrote it all.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I view myself as a risk taker who overthinks to my advantage. I overthink everything a lot, but from that I plan. A lot of people ask me how I am always so calm; the truth is that I can only be calm. The situations I am in never are helped by panic, they are helped by being calm despite the anxiety you may feel.
It took a lot of time to practice, I would say the main risk is putting yourself out there for your work to be looked at.
Rejection is a part of life, and putting yourself out there is a risk, but learning to cope with rejection is like a super power.
So I am a risk taker because I prefer to do that over worrying and doing nothing. The least I can do for myself is worry while I am taking the risk.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luckycrocodilecommentary?stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@luckycrocodile?si=uKgnZsXLH6UxZY2s
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@luckycrocodilecommentary?_r=1&_t=ZP-9AHbRaegY6o

Image Credits
Images taken by Derae Rain and J.T.Rai