We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shardul Sharma. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shardul below.

Alright, Shardul thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

The top 3 trends I am seeing in film + entertainment industry are

1. Social Videos/ Media on platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Twitter

With Facebook Watch, Facebook is doing everything it can to steal the social media video throne and with over 1 billion monthly viewers, it may be working. But while Facebook has impressive numbers, it’s far from trendy. TikTok, on the other hand, is a rocket ship. TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users as well and those users aren’t afraid to invest in getting more followers. Meanwhile, Facebook’s social video push is extending onto its other platforms. IGTV, launched by Instagram is now integrated into the main app. While it has not exploded in the same manner as their Stories feature, there are some signs of promise.

But no matter which platform ends up on top, one thing is for sure: social video is a huge trend in the world of entertainment. As 5G network coverage expands, video streaming and download speeds will rise. And we think social video usage will, too!

2. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

When it comes to current trends in digital media, ignoring augmented reality and virtual reality does not make sense. AR and VR content has conquered all lights in the media and entertainment businesses. They both strengthen relationships between content creators and watchers. Consumers today are catapulted into an environment with blurred borders between digital and physical realms.

These two technologies have been available for years because of the cost ramp down. Celebrities and artists realize that keeping in touch with their fans is essential for their activities. Distributing new releases is still complicated in the age of COVID-19.

Musicians can use VR entertainment content to bridge the gap caused by the pandemic’s consequences and their followers with live entertainment events canceled because of social distancing. The connection between artists and their fans has never been more profound than now, thanks to virtual and augmented worlds.

One example of these two trends working together is Pokemon Go. Popular social networks think that augmented reality and virtual reality provide affordability and mobility, whether live streaming or story-based videos. AR and VR entertainment software development boost experience more than ever. It’s necessary to optimize VR and AR content so that users of different devices can use them.

3. Digital Media: D2C Video Streaming

One of the latest trends in the media industry has been witnessing a rise since the initial introduction of global lockdown. During that period, users found it necessary to access diverse video content of premium quality. This need has triggered a drop in pay-per-view TV subscriptions in the United States, but raised overall digital video consumption.

Over-the-top stepped in to offer a variety of choices. OTT platforms include Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and more. They all offer cross-platform compatibility necessary for most modern consumers. After all, an audience today prefers multiple platforms and devices for watching videos. Another outcome is streaming warfare.

Shardul, 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 am an Independent film producer settled in Los Angeles. I was born and raised in Mumbai – India, in a very traditional and conservative working-class family. With no ties to films or entertainment industry, it was a tough decision, but I am very thankful to my family for supporting my decision to work in the entertainment industry. More than anyone it was my mother who encouraged me the most to follow my passion and not fear anything in life. I had never planned to leave India and move to the United States; in fact, I was very happy doing what I was doing in India. It was a few friends in Indian film industry and my mentor Shiamak Davar, who encouraged me to take the leap of faith and start my career in Hollywood.

I started my producing career with an internship at Ashok Amritrajʼs production company Hyde Park Entertainment in 2012. That was my first job in LA and right after that, I started producing films on my own. It was tough initially but I never gave up and continued doing whatever I could with the resources I had. Like everyone else, I started with short films, student films, films with absolutely no budget and gradually with time, I started getting better work. Now after 5 feature films, few short films, music videos and several ads & commercials, I can say I am doing okay as a Producer. It’s a long way to go but I am happy with my journey so far. I had the opportunity to work for studios like Paramount Pictures including my short time at Viacom and at the moment I am working as a Senior Producer with ATTN, one of the most known names in digital media production for social networks and major film studios + networks and corporate brands.

At the moment, I am working a lot on commercials and advertisements. I am working as a senior producer at ATTN which is a very well-known company in the digital media and social media world. My daily work includes overseeing and managing film shoots in a variety of formats, including major client-sponsored content, original series, and editorial content. Managing the production schedule, budget, hiring all crew members, negotiating and signing deals with all the vendors, dealing with cast & crew and financial paperwork, dealing with sales agents and festival programmers is a part of my day-to-day routine. I am proud of the fact that I could establish myself and find a place for myself in this part of the world. My background of growing up in a country with such high traditional values, color, music & dance and diversity, I try to bring all of that in my work, which does my work different from many others. I try to add value to each and every job that I take on or have an opportunity to work on. I grew up watching movies like Terminator, Rambo, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Training Day, etc. and I never thought life will give me an opportunity to work with filmmakers who actually made these movies. So while I was at Paramount Pictures and I had an opportunity to work with filmmakers like Ang Lee, Antoine Fuqua and Tom Cruise, which will forever be my most proud moments.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It was never an easy journey and even now after so many years of work it’s still not a smooth road. It’s constant hard work and a lot of learning and relearning the new ways of the industry. Times are much easier now with diversity inclusion and equal opportunity but ten years ago it wasn’t like this at all. It was really tough being an immigrant and person of color to find work and be accepted. I would almost always hear that why do we need a Non-American person to lead the production of an American-based story. It’s way different now, diversity inclusion has become a big thing and the doors that were closed for us have now slowly started opening up.

Also, this industry is a tough a place, just to survive here is a challenge in itself. With challenging and uncertain times like right now, it’s only getting more difficult. You need to constantly adapt to the new changes, that’s one of the major reasons I moved to short-form media content from traditional long-form content. Prior to Covid, I had only worked in films but during Covid all movie productions were shut, social media became huge and digital content became everything. Hence I immediately decided to move on and relearn the art of filmmaking but this time with short-form media.

It was never an easy journey, but I am very grateful for what I achieved in the time I have spent in this career.

I strongly believe in taking risks but calculated risks. I think as a person I prepare a lot and I want to know the odds regardless of the situation hence I always believe in myself and never fear risks.

It was a major risk to leave my all set career back home in India and to move here to start all over again. But I knew if I invest a few years and work hard to make my place in the industry here, I will move way ahead in my career. I had a choice to either stay in my comfort zone, with my family support at home and continue my hustle in Bollywood or move to a completely new world of Hollywood where I don’t know anyone and hustle here but the difference was if I become something here in Hollywood then I am already someone in Bollywood not the other way around. So regardless of the risk and challenges, I chose investing my time to hustle in a place where I knew I will definitely grow faster. I thought if I have to make my mark in the industry, then I will have to change my approach that is different, new and better than what was already happening. Today, I am glad I made that decision because now after ten years, I have had the opportunity to work at some major film studios and entertainment agencies in the world.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Before moving to Los Angeles, I had worked in India for over 12 years, as a dancer, performer and a fitness trainer. I was working with the top A list artists and celebrities in the industry and I was at the top of my career. One day out of the blue, I met with an accident, I fell from the train and damaged my ankle. It was so bad that I could not walk for over 6 months, I was on crutches and had a year long recovery just to get back to normal life. Getting back to dance was not even a question and doctors werew having a challenge to just get me back on my feet. After 2 years long recovery, I had to leave everything I had earned and had to start once again right from scratch.

But somewhere in my heart I wanted to try something new. It was then that one of my close friend back home who did a filmmaking course in Los Angeles, upon her return she suggested me to take a break from work and try the same course and then decide. Initially, I wasn`t sure, but I thought a lot about it and after consulting with my other friends who were way senior to me in Indian Film Industry, I took this huge step of going back to school (a film school). I thought if I must make my mark in the industry, then I’ll have to change my approach which is different, new, and better than what was already happening. I am glad I made that decision because now after 12 years I can say that I have been very fortunate to have worked with some very talented artists in the industry and I also had an opportunity to work at Paramount Pictures which is one of the biggest film studios in Hollywood. It was never an easy journey, but I am very thankful for what I achieved in the time I have spent in this career.

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