We were lucky to catch up with Advait Gharat recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Advait thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

With all the knowledge I have today, starting over would be amazing. I would avoid all the mistakes I have made in the past. Building a production company or a freelance video/film business is very hard, but the hardest thing I’ve faced through the years is hiring the right people for the job. Hiring crew has been a very tough task, especially because they are a freelance hire dependent on what kind of project it is going to be. Choosing the right person for the job can be very challenging, and scary too if you have not worked with them before. Depending on someone without working with them before is stressful, but I’ve figured out a few ways to determine who can be a good fit to work with and if their working method matches mine. Having those few filters makes hiring crew very easy, and if you have a good crew, any project can be breezy. An efficient, hard working crew is much more powerful than having a big, un-vetted crew.
Looking for the best in people. playing into their strengths and using the right tools to guide your team are skills that I’ve picked up over the years which give me an edge if I were to start all over today. If I was starting over today, I would spend a lot of time deciding who I am going to be working with and that makes all the difference in your business.

Advait, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m from Mumbai, the “city of dreams” as they call it. It also happens to be the home ground for filmmaking in India. I grew up watching a lot of movies and it made me very interested in the art of cinema over the years. Even though I went to university to study Computer Engineering, I quit the field entirely and decided to pursue cinematography and filmmaking as a career. I taught myself a lot of things through YouTube and working under professionals. I went to Film School in New York for a couple years to learn and understand how everything works in the industry and how I can break into it. Today, I work as a cinematographer and filmmaker and try my best to tell stories through the visual medium, which I consider myself to be good at.
I’ve always enjoyed telling stories, and getting to do that for a living makes me truly happy. Working across niches, genres, and even different mediums, all while keeping storytelling at the core is my goal, and it’s something I deeply enjoy.
I run my own production agency, where we produce, create, shoot and execute films for brands, small businesses, social media and corporates. We also focus on narrative storytelling with short films and documentaries and we’re really hoping to make our first feature film soon!
Over the years we’ve provided our clients with videos and films that have brought them business, increased footfall and an increased social media presence. We want to keep delivering what we have while making our shooting and producing process more cost and time efficient.
My work over the years has covered a lot of genres and industries but I’m trying really hard to make narrative storytelling my main focus. Seeing a theater full of people enjoy a film, react to it, and connect with the characters is a real high. I try to make more and more narrative films so I can keep chasing that high and see an audience have a communal experience as they watch something I have created,

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Very often my non-creative friends fail to understand that creative work is sometimes hard to come by and there is some down-time. Unlike corporate jobs, creative work and income is unstable. Sometimes you can’t depend on predictions and estimates and there can be an income slump that leads to strain on the business. The creative journey is difficult to understand, It is also a path of constant learning. “What work” in the film industry keeps on changes and you have to constantly re-invent yourself or your material, not only to stay relevant but to run a profitable enterprise. Running a business as a creative always means preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Since I started as a freelancer my initial capital was only my camera and lens. The kit and equipment setup got built eventually as I kept making more money and acquiring new equipment after every big payday. It would’ve been difficult for me to buy all the equipment upfront. I built everything slowly and brick by brick, as you may call it. Whenever I needed something I didn’t own, I always asked around and borrowed it from my friends and colleagues. I would rent as a last option if I was not able to source it from someone I knew. A lot of friends helped out with equipment early on in my career and I did the same for them if they needed anything from me. The way to build everything was – buy only what is absolutely necessary, borrow or rent what is occasionally required and don’t spend on anything that’s rarely required.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://advaitgharat2.wixsite.com/advaitgharat
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/advait_gharat/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advaitgharat/