Today we’d like to introduce you to Vaishnavi Padmanathan.
Hi Vaishnavi, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
One of the very earliest memories I have is winning a storytelling competition when I was about four years old. I remember standing in front of my preschool classmates and saying a story my mother taught me, and everyone looked at me with eager eyes. I got a storybook for winning the competition. I know I didn’t decide to be a storyteller at that moment, I was too young to make that decision, but I did discover the power of storytelling and more importantly, the joy it brings to the audience and the storyteller. As I grew up, my love for storytelling grew more and more, and it peaked when I decided to pursue it full-time by going to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for their Dramatic Writing MFA program. Since graduating, I have moved to LA and have trying to get started in the industry to tell stories that are inclusive and authentic.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Since I majored in journalism as an undergrad, I did not know how to start a career in the film industry in India. Due to limited knowledge and no connections, getting that first break meant applying to any and every job available on Linkedin and sending cold emails, wishing that someone who came across the email identifies my potential. It was one of those defining moments in my life because I could have taken the easy way out, especially as I was known to quit things easy as a kid, but I didn’t because I wanted to find a way. One of those many hundreds of emails that I sent led to me finding an internship at an international production house, and that’s how my story in the industry began. Within six months, I was hired full-time by the company and within a year, I scored my very first IMDb credit. If it weren’t for that period of post-graduation blues, I would have never realized how badly I wanted to make it as a storyteller and that’s what I have been trying to devote all my energies to ever since.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a writer for screen and television. All of my works are deeply personal even if they are not autobiographical. A truth in life has inspired the truth in each story of mine. I think being vulnerable in one’s work is how one can connect with the audience and in truth, that’s what I like most about writing. I like to investigate human conditions in my works through perspectives seldom used to tell stories.
The COVID crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
I did the first year of my grad school via Zoom in India as I couldn’t leave the country at the time and so I attended classes remotely. Having classes at odd hours and getting to know my professors and cohort virtually was odd and rough for all the reasons one would expect. But I am also grateful for the privileges I hold that allowed me to say yes to the opportunity as I found an outlet during the pandemic where I could create works that have now gone on to shape my life as a writer.
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