Growth, practice, and tireless dedication with Nikhail Asnani
Nikhail Asnani
In this profile series, Revry is highlighting authentic contributors to the LGBTQ media and entertainment community. We ask questions to find out who they are and where they are going in the future. The questions remain the same but the answers tell their unique story. It’s time to explore and celebrate true representation beyond the limits of Hollywood.
Nikhail Asnani is a writer and director that uses his spark to immerse himself into multiple creative ventures within the entertainment world, such as producing, acting, painting, and making music. His short films ‘Something Round’ and ‘Playback’ have been recognized by multiple festivals including Nightmares Film Festival and Zed Fest. Check out his work at nikhailasnani.com
What are you best known for?
I'm best known for my short films Something Round, Playback, The Foal, My Boyfriend the Boogeyman and Flu which have played in dozens of festivals, including Nightmares Film Festival, Hollyshorts Monthly Screenings, Newfilmmakers NY, Columbus International Film and Animation Festival, Portland Film Festival, Arizona Underground Film Festival, Zed Fest, Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, Qflix, Another Hole in the Head, and upcoming at Cinequest to name a few. They earned me a bunch of awards and showcased my talent as writer, director and with my one man show- jack of multiple trades.
I'm also known for my screenplays placing in many competitions like Screencraft but also winning the Big Apple Film Festival with my feature script Ripe, which was a huge accomplishment and took months of work and rewrites. I'd have to say a lot of this was due to growth, practice and tireless dedication. Waking up at 5am in grad school to head to the coffee shop before class to work, long caffeinated nights, I stress the fact I need lots of caffeine and pushing myself to not just write, but direct and produce and build my own creative world of content. I wasn't born a natural artist, in fact I studied politics and economics during my undergrad, though I did have some stints in acting early on in theatre and the feature film Ultraviolet starring Mila Jovovich. I even auditioned for Slumdog Millionaire when I was very young, but soon realized after an internship with LGBTQ film director Casper Andreas that I wanted to be behind the camera moreso.
I invested years just writing, not rewriting at the time as I didn't understand how so much. Had I known how to rewrite, I probably could've saved myself a lot of time. When I moved to America for graduate school, a lot changed and I found my voice and with that a desire to act again, though it is not my strength. I explored various art forms, free from pressure from the toxicity of my upbringing, and with steadfast determination - I made music, I also then became a light painter and combined that with performance art which I do as a hobby to create these psychedelic photographs.
I had some amazing mentors in school, such as John Badham, David Ward, Michael Schiffer and Roy Finch to name a few. A lot of the time people ask me what my work is inspired from, the ideas tend to be quite original but really it boils down to a very constant theme of my hopes and fears, and that being said, my hopes for the relationship I never had and my fears of the pursuit. But as I evolve as a person, my art too is evolving and my hopes and fears fall deeper into a pit, no longer superficial but rather developing a connection with the universe around.
What is the first thing you created?
The first thing I ever wrote and directed was a mis-en-scene black and white short called Dial a Diner. It was about a girl ordering delivery from a food delivery service, thinking she was ordering in a date, but it was just food. It was shot in New York, and on film and was the only time I've shot on actual film. It wasn't very good and it was one of my first creative attempts ever. That was 12 years ago, and I actually stopped making films after that for a period of time because of some personal issues, but it's actually weird to think back to that and how much growth has happened in all this time. To be honest not much has changed in terms of the types of stories I like to tell, they tend to be sad stories and most of the time a female lead. What a memory! I think I'd like to shoot something in actual film again now that you've brought up this question. It would be a really interesting experience.
What are you working on that no one knows about yet?
I can't really say too much about what I'm working on that no one knows about, but it's a creature horror that I optioned to Steven de Souza's production company. So that's been on my mind the most. I also recently completed a one man show short feature, I say short feature because it's literally the minimum minute count the AFI standardizes for a feature. It's being edited right and hopefully if it's not too embarrassing I'll be able to release it, and alongside that I have another short in development, that was meant to be shot last summer but got postponed until who knows when because of the pandemic. And of course I'm always writing and rewriting older stuff. During the pandemic I had a very creative spree and created a lot of content, so hopefully some of that will hit festivals soon.
