Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andrew Gajadhar, p.g.a.. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Andrew, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
My entire life has been surrounded by trauma. At the age of four, I lost my father to suicide while he and my mother were serving in the US Army. It was around this time that my older brother introduced me to the world of Martial Arts as a way to keep me focused and occupied. While most kids were playing video games, I was working with my hands to either train, build something, or play music. 12 years later, my brother committed suicide the same way my father did as a Ranger in the US Army. After that, I committed my life to serving and protecting others. I was in the Delayed Entry Program at 16 and was enlisted into the US Marines by 17. After 9-11, I became medically discharged as a disabled veteran, shortly thereafter, with injuries and anxiety disorders. At the time, the best thing I thought I knew how to do was protect people and work with my hands, which made me feel lost in a civilian world. With the help of a friend, I entered the field of law enforcement, which put me in more harms way than I ever was in the military, ironically. As an Executive Protection Specialist, Contract Security Specialist, Operator, and Law Enforcement Officer for a combined 15 years, I was in well over 200 shootouts and firefights. As a stroke of luck, when I ended up owning my own contract security company, myself and the VP of my company were hired to be fight/stunt/tactical choreographers and advisors for a feature film a mutual friend was a part of that reached out to us. After experiencing and understanding how every aspect of knowledge I’ve gained over the short span of my life could be applied to the film industry through that one film, it was like feeling the same focus and occupational therapy my brother introduced me to with Martial Arts when I was just four years old. The difference was that this time I could identify its importance in my life. It was at this time that I decided to retire from the protection field and fully immerse myself into the film industry. I got myself back into school and earned degrees in both the Arts and Psychology. I got inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame as the co-founder of my own Martial Science discipline, and I’ve been applying both Martial Science and film production as a form of Occupational Therapy for myself and others ever since.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Andrew Gajadhar, and I was the first ever accredited Producer with the Producers Guild of America registered with the South Carolina Film Commission. I’m also a Writer, Director and Actor, known for What Matters (2018), Shenanigans (2019), Alienography (2019), and in post-production of a new horror trilogy called Milila (2020). My work has been multi award-winning, to include 8 nominations and 3 wins at the Rising Star Academy Awards in Philadelphia, PA in 2018. I’ve Produced and Directed features, shorts, reality television, commercials, promotional videos, instructional videos, and much more. My career started as a fight/tactical choreographer, rooted from an extensive Martial Arts, Law Enforcement, and Military background in the U.S. Marines with my founding organization, American P.I.T. Fighting Academy. As a Martial Scientist, I’m an inductee of the Action Magazine Martial Arts Hall of Honors, an inductee into the International Combat Martial Arts Founders Union Association as the founder and Headmaster Instructor for American P.I.T. Fighting (8th Degree), and in the Hall of Honors World History Book as the founder of American P.I.T. Fighting. I have degrees in both the Arts and in Psychology and one of the co-founders of Freedom Festival International Film Festival in Columbia, South Carolina. As a co-founder of Carolina Film Network (NPO), I serve as the Executive Director.
As a person who’s been dedicated to both Martial Science and the film industry as a disabled veteran with physical and mental disabilities, I believe that I bring a different perspective to the craft and business of filmmaking. The best problems that I feel I can help to solve, given my experience, is helping others that are seeking solutions to find a stronger foundation of which to grow in the industry. With this, I best serve as an educator about the intricacies of the industry and how to navigate it progressively while providing consulting services. I do this as a way of giving back to our community through our nonprofit organization by hosting classes in film production, doing film camps, public speaking panels and events, meeting and consulting individually with filmmakers, and advocating through works of our own.
What I’m most proud of is the results of the work my partners and I have put in along the way, whether that’s seeing how our work has influenced the hearts and minds of others through advocacy and entertainment, or seeing the growth of others that we have guided and/or given inclusive experience to in the industry. What sets me apart from others is that I genuinely don’t do it for the money, rather, I do it to see us as a collective be better versions of ourselves as stronger representations of what we do in our area and abroad.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I’ve been faced with two primary functions as a Producer, finding countless amounts of resources and being knowledgeable enough to navigate and communicate with those resources as effectively as possible. That said, the best story from my journey I have that illustrates my resilience would have to be a combination of going back to school for seven years to get degrees in the Arts and Psychology so that I can educate myself about acting, directing, writing, producing, what drives human behaviors and conditions, and traveling at a moment’s notice to shake hands and cultivate relationships with other professionals in the film industry. A person like myself will travel on an empty tank of gas to fill up on input and cultivation that can be extracted and used by others at a later time.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the lessons I had to unlearn in my career was to stop downplaying my accomplishments and the accomplishments of others I came in contact with, whether that was directly or indirectly. As a person starting off in this industry, it’s very easy to fall in line with people who spend a lot of time negatively criticizing others and their work, are not willing to invest in bettering themselves within their craft, feel like they don’t need anyone else’s help or inclusion, or advise others in a poorly educated manner without reason or referencing. As a result, it only keeps us where we are and not progressing in a meaningful way. I also fell victim to reciprocating this behavior. I would only tell people selective parts of my accomplishments, because I thought it would otherwise make me seem arrogant, or so I was told/advised. I also negatively criticized others in casual conversations with people I knew or even met for the first time. I was fortunate enough to have my business partners sit down with me and discuss how toxic this was for our growth. I also had a deep discussion with a major investor that was kind enough to tell me how these things are seen as unfavorable to people in their position. In short, I have been letting people know all about who I am, what I represent, and that every part of their work, network, and existence matter ever since.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.carolinafilmnetworknpo.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewgajadhar/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001786505895
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-gajadhar-p-g-a-346002122/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdt_ximecgz_9Nndl17RCyQ
- Other: www.andrewgajadhar.com
Image Credits
Faith Creech