We have the pleasure of sharing the adventures of Saraswathi “Vani” Balgam — from pioneering visual effects in India to founding her studio, Dancing Atoms, and mentoring future talents.
From her early beginnings in the visual effects industry in India, Vani’s drive and curiosity propelled her into careers at Rhythm & Hues and DreamWorks. Vani founded Dancing Atoms, a boutique studio that focuses on representing India and Southeast Asia, with a vision for bringing culturally unique content to a global audience.
Join us as she shares her adventures in trust and transitions from visual effects to documentary filmmaking and children’s programming — and building women’s creative leadership opportunities like the Woman Creators Program in collaboration with Epic Games.
Guest: Saraswathi “Vani” Balgam, CEO/Creative Director, Dancing Atoms; Creative producer, Creator and Consultant; Head of the Women in Animation (WIA) India Collective, President of ASIFA India and founder of Epic’s Women Creators Program
Saraswathi ‘Vani’ Balgam is an Indian-born writer, director, self-taught photographer, and filmmaker. Her Indian and Southeast Asian cultural heritage and her experiences and memories from being an avid global traveler help her portray common humanity and unique journeys within her characters and stories.
Her exposure to the film industry started at a young age when her father started a 2D animation studio within their family home, intending to create films that involved rich Indian culture and heritage for a global audience. This foundation of creativity is from her father, as well as her mother who is also vividly creative.
While Vani started her career as a business development executive for CMM Studios Limited in Mumbai, India, she slowly rose through the ranks within the Southeast Asian film scene and was appointed as Executive Director and Founder of the Rhythm and Hues Asian Studios. While executive director, she managed employees across four studios in Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Taiwan which produced VFX for many major Hollywood films, such as ‘Life of Pi’, and ‘The Golden Compass’, which each won Rhythm and Hues Studios the Academy Awards for Best VFX in 2013 and 2008 respectively. Vani also served as the Head of Creative Management and Training for Dreamworks Studios in Shanghai, China.
Vani founded Dancing Atoms Studio in 2015 to create amazing stories with unforgettable and different characters. She actively encourages community development all around the world. She is currently the president of Women in Animation – India Collective. She was also the president of Asifa India, a non-profit organization that has been dedicated to the art of animation for over two decades. Vani coined the Unreal Epic Games Women Creators Program for India & SE Asia intending to inspire and train women creators and form a community of creators.
Links:
- Dancing Atoms: https://www.dancingatoms.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dancingatoms1/
- Vani on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanibalgam/
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3752718
- 2021 Article: https://www.animationxpress.com/animation/saraswathi-vani-balgam-delves-about-her-journey-current-projects-and-everything-in-between/
- 2023 Animation World Network: https://www.awn.com/animationworld/saraswathi-buyyala-balgam-unreal-engine-paving-way-women-creators
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Transcript
Bonnie, you so inspired me at
Speaker:SIGGRAPH that you had a room
Speaker:transfixed with your life experience, with great
Speaker:graphics for it, but also such imaginative
Speaker:risk-taking to build new things from scratch
Speaker:around the world. It was totally fascinating. So I'm extremely excited about having you
Speaker:on the show. Thank you. Thank you so much. Gigi, this.
Speaker:This is all my pleasure. Excellent.
Speaker:So can you start us off and explain
Speaker:what you're doing now? And is it all
Speaker:in dancing Adams? Is it beyond dancing Adams now,
Speaker:what are your adventures right now? So I
Speaker:am running a boutique studio in Los Angeles,
Speaker:and I'm focusing on telling stories, of
Speaker:course, mostly from India and Southeast
Speaker:Asia, to bring them to the rest of the world.
Speaker:So that's really my focus, is how do I
Speaker:transcend people? How do I transcend
Speaker:experiences that I have had or I know people have had
Speaker:in these parts of the world and bring animation
Speaker:content, preschool shows, feature films,
Speaker:games, but with a very strong voice,
Speaker:which is mine. From India. And so
Speaker:you are living a multinational life. So even though you have your studios
Speaker:here in LA, we're catching you right now in India.
Speaker:Where else is the footprint of your life right now?
Speaker:Oh, my God. I would say Los Angeles and India are the two big
Speaker:footprints right now. But if I could put another one, that would be
Speaker:up in the Himalayas. Oh, wow. Okay,
Speaker:can you start us backwards? Let's track backwards
Speaker:in life. And can you tell us about
Speaker:Vannie when she was about 16? Was she a
Speaker:creator? Was she a
Speaker:filmmaker? Was she a storyteller? Was
Speaker:she patient? Was she adventurous? What was Vani
Speaker:at 16? I think she was
Speaker:fearless. I think she was
Speaker:untamed and fearless. I look back and say, oh, my
Speaker:God, I was so gutsy. I had no concept
Speaker:of fear. I was
Speaker:not scared of anything, and I
Speaker:did exactly what I wanted to do. And
Speaker:I didn't think too much about the consequences
Speaker:of right and wrong, whether it's the right decision or the wrong
Speaker:decision. But I think I was also, at the same time,
Speaker:very spiritually grounded.
Speaker:So I feel like I felt free. I
Speaker:felt very free.
Speaker:So what did the 16 Year old you think you
Speaker:wanted to do when you grew up?
Speaker:Oh, wow. I think the 16 year old wanted
Speaker:to. I think I
Speaker:just had very simple dreams, to be very honest.
Speaker:I just wanted to be independent. I wanted to be
Speaker:financially very strong. I never wanted to
Speaker:be dependent financially on
Speaker:anybody, and I was willing to do whatever it
Speaker:takes. And I
Speaker:didn't think a job was a good job or a bad job or a small
Speaker:job. I just knew that I had to do what
Speaker:was there to get moving.
Speaker:And my dreams were also very simple. They weren't as
Speaker:big as they are today.
Speaker:They were very simple. I think I wanted a very simple life. I
Speaker:wanted to be happy. I wanted to be with my friends
Speaker:and just be financially independent. I think I would joke with my
Speaker:friends of, when I grow up, I want to wear shorts,
Speaker:and I want to have my own apartment, and I just want to listen to
Speaker:music all day. Wow.
Speaker:You know, being in India or growing up in India, wearing
Speaker:shorts was, like, a big deal. That meant,
Speaker:like, you have
Speaker:was. That was a massive, big thing for me.
Speaker:Were your parents creative? Did they live creative lives,
Speaker:or are you stepping into their footsteps? Okay.
Speaker:My father, I think from the
Speaker:last memory or the first memory that I had of him
Speaker:was that he was a man with colors. He would always
Speaker:have sketch pens, and he would just use
Speaker:sketch pens to continue drawing very
Speaker:intricate little patterns that were Indian patterns. And then he would create
Speaker:these forms and images around
Speaker:it. And there was always paint in
Speaker:the house. There's always colors in the house. And whether we were
Speaker:painting walls, just even these white walls,
Speaker:he would just simply continue to paint them with different colors.
Speaker:My mother loved. She still
Speaker:does a lot of paintings, like flowers and patterns
Speaker:and stitching. And so it was filled with Arts and hobies
Speaker:all the time. So what did they expect
Speaker:you to do? I
Speaker:think, like every other parent in
Speaker:India, I think they wanted it. My mother, I would
Speaker:say, wanted me to live a very stable life. Like, she would be.
Speaker:Like, she would have very minimal expectations, like,
Speaker:get your education, get married, and you can
Speaker:be a schoolteacher and teach your kids when they come back
Speaker:home. So she had very,
Speaker:okay, this is going to be a trajectory in life. And
Speaker:my father was the wild card. He
Speaker:dreamt for us about winning Oscars. He
Speaker:dreamt about us driving in multiple
Speaker:cars, and he dreamt about
Speaker:the unachievable. And my mother
Speaker:was always grounded, so I don't know where
Speaker:we ended up. But they wanted cars.
Speaker:Piece. Why multiple cars? I don't know. I think
Speaker:he was just always fascinated. He had traveled around the world,
Speaker:and he would always be like, I can totally see you in that car
Speaker:and that car and that car. And I, till date, don't
Speaker:understand that fixation with cars, because I'm not a car
Speaker:person.
Speaker:But for him, I think the car basically
Speaker:meant independence and freedom,
Speaker:probably a little bit of luxury, but I thought it meant more
Speaker:freedom more than anything else. For me, it
Speaker:resonates because there's this great exercise. What would it
Speaker:be for you to feel wealthy and successful? And I grew up in a
Speaker:relatively poor family, and so the idea of having
Speaker:a second car was an indication of freedom and
Speaker:wealth. And so when I suddenly did that exercise,
Speaker:we ended up just realizing, I just need a junker in the front that
Speaker:I don't drive to feel wealthy as I was second car. And we actually did
Speaker:that. So having multiple cars, totally. I grok
Speaker:that entire sentiment, but from my life.
Speaker:So when it came time, as school
Speaker:teacher, Oscar, college life,
Speaker:what were your first set of choices that you took to leave the household?
Speaker:As much as my father was a big dreamer and wanted to
Speaker:do a lot of great big things,
Speaker:we were financially very, very strained.
Speaker:He didn't have enough money to send me and my
Speaker:brother to school. We couldn't afford
Speaker:college. So I
Speaker:think we
Speaker:came to understand life and at a very, very young
Speaker:age, probably too early, maybe for our
Speaker:own good. But the one thing that I saw was
Speaker:that my parents were borrowing money
Speaker:to make things meet, to make
Speaker:ends meet. And that's something that I never wanted.
Speaker:I said, this is a big no.
Speaker:I don't have to achieve really big things in life. I don't have to have
Speaker:multiple cars, multiple houses, win
Speaker:Oscars, but I definitely do not want
Speaker:to be dependent or
Speaker:borrowing. And that was very strongly
Speaker:instilled by my mother because she
Speaker:came from, I think both of them came from very
Speaker:minimal backgrounds.
Speaker:So I felt more the desire to say,
Speaker:whatever I do, I want to be standing on my
Speaker:2ft, however small that is.
Speaker:So what were your first steps out of the family
Speaker:home? I got a
Speaker:job, probably like at 17 or
Speaker:something, to leave. We were
Speaker:in a city called Madras, which is currently called
Speaker:Chennai, and I left home.
Speaker:I was 17, probably getting close to
Speaker:18 or even less. And I moved to Mumbai,
Speaker:which is Bombay. And I started working
Speaker:in the visual effects and animation industry as a coordinator.
Speaker:So I used to go to the set,
Speaker:the film set, and then pick up data for visual
Speaker:effects, for green screen, or to do some
Speaker:effects or very simple work.
Speaker:How did that walk in your door? How did you step into
Speaker:that space? I have no idea,
Speaker:actually. I think it was
Speaker:just more that I've always wanted to be a filmmaker, and I was never
Speaker:given the opportunity to be in the direction team
Speaker:because there were actually no
Speaker:woman in that space in India at that time.
Speaker:And it was such a scarcity that
Speaker:they were very scared to take any female
Speaker:chances. Like, they were worried more about the risk of having a
Speaker:woman on a movie set. And so
Speaker:the visual effects was the closest that I could have been
Speaker:in touch with live action filmmaking. And so
Speaker:I taught myself a couple of things thanks to my brother,
Speaker:who was a wizard, picking up things and putting things
Speaker:together. And he'd be like, this is how it's done, and this is what is
Speaker:happening. And I'd be like, okay, great. Then
Speaker:I can be good at collecting data. I'm not a strong
Speaker:technical person, but I'm creative, so I'm going to jump into that
Speaker:bandwagon. And I said, I will do this, this, and
Speaker:this. And they were like, okay, great. Nobody has said they want to do that,
Speaker:so come on board. So it literally happened like
Speaker:that. So how did the next parts of your
Speaker:journey go? I mean, you ended up at rhythm and
Speaker:Hughes and helping them build a lot. What was the journey from
Speaker:that starting point to that bigger
Speaker:experience? I would say,
Speaker:know all these experiences that happened
Speaker:kind of put
Speaker:actually, I really don't understand how any of this happened.
Speaker:But I was in the studio in Mumbai, Bombay,
Speaker:and there was an email that came from Ruthman, you saying that they wanted
Speaker:to come and visit and send some work to India. And I
Speaker:was, you know, and it was a dial up
Speaker:connection. I couldn't see anything back then. Like,
Speaker:all the little photographs were coming up, and they were taking 3 hours to pop
Speaker:up on the computer. And finally, when they came,
Speaker:I couldn't fathom that these were the studio that I had made
Speaker:and a movie called Babe, where they had won the
Speaker:Academy Award. And I was like, wait, what is all of this?
Speaker:And who are these people? And why do they want to come to India?
Speaker:And why do they want to work here with Indians that are not
Speaker:trained or talented to provide those very high end services?
Speaker:So I basically spoke the truth and asked them those questions.
Speaker:And that's basically how rhythm and Hughes started. A
Speaker:year later, I think when they finally
Speaker:came and said, well, we want you to run rhythm and Hughes. And I was
Speaker:like, are you kidding? Like, I'm not the right person?
Speaker:And they were like, no, come on, and set up the
Speaker:company. So why did you think that
Speaker:you weren't the right person, and why did they think you were the
Speaker:right person. That you need to ask them? But
Speaker:I'll tell you, I had all the reasons why I was not the right
Speaker:person. I
Speaker:hadn't graduated from school. I was not an MBA. I
Speaker:had no idea what a business is. I had
Speaker:never run a studio in my entire life. I was always working
Speaker:for somebody else.
Speaker:I never set up anything on my own before.
Speaker:I don't think anybody reported to me in that
Speaker:particular way that now I, and I never set up an entity
Speaker:legally before in my life. There were so many things that
Speaker:I had not done before. Um,
Speaker:so I don't know.
Speaker:I think, I think it just happened where
Speaker:they said they basically, John
Speaker:Hughes and Richard Castaldo from
Speaker:Rhythm & Hues back then, they
Speaker:had an interview with me and asked me a bunch of questions, and they were
Speaker:like, what would you do? How would you do this? How would you
Speaker:run a company? And I was so
Speaker:cocky.
Speaker:I was so full of myself. I'd run it from my apartment and they'd
Speaker:be like, are you sure you'll run it from your apartment? And why would you
Speaker:do that? I'm like, I want to save the costs. I'm like,
Speaker:really? Did I really think these things through
Speaker:before answering those questions? I have no idea.
Speaker:But the very young person
Speaker:in me had seen a lot that my father had
Speaker:done. And I think all the education
Speaker:of the choices that I made,
Speaker:I think were subconsciously coming because of
Speaker:what my parents had gone through or what my father had gone through in
Speaker:setting up businesses in India.
Speaker:So this was about 2000. 2001,
Speaker:right. So that was an era that
Speaker:was just after Napster, that there was
Speaker:disruption happening in various industries, but still the
Speaker:early stages. And then you spent more than a decade then with
Speaker:rhythm and Hughes. What did you bring to
Speaker:that adventure? How much did it change you?
Speaker:And what was the whole, I mean, that in itself could be an hour
Speaker:long conversation. But what's kind of the nexus of
Speaker:that experience for you? I think
Speaker:it, on the,
Speaker:on the human front, I think I understood what trust
Speaker:is
Speaker:and what trust can do.
Speaker:So when John kind of hired me over
Speaker:a phone call, and I had never been to the US before,
Speaker:and here was an Academy Award winning
Speaker:studio, and he said,
Speaker:you're going to legally set up a rhythm in Hughes in India?
Speaker:I didn't understand that. But
Speaker:when I understood it, I think it absolutely
Speaker:changed me, because
Speaker:trusting somebody that you don't know, trusting somebody that you've never
Speaker:met, trusting somebody
Speaker:is no joke.
Speaker:And then believing that they will deliver
Speaker:is another. I mean, like, how, how do you, how
Speaker:do you do all of these things in a
Speaker:world where it tells you not to trust, where it tells
Speaker:you not to believe? And
Speaker:culturally, we were so different. I
Speaker:grew up my entire life in India, never traveled outside of
Speaker:IndIA, and John never came to
Speaker:India. So he never met any. Never. He never
Speaker:came to India before. So I
Speaker:think the biggest takeaway was,
Speaker:how do you reciprocate to someone who trusts you,
Speaker:and then how do you expand that trust to everything else that
Speaker:you build?
Speaker:How do I put it? Like, when the seed,
Speaker:when the foundation is trust, then
Speaker:everything has to start with that and end with that.
Speaker:Every day had to start with that and end with that. So every person that
Speaker:I recruited after that, every person
Speaker:that we welcomed into the studio,
Speaker:every transaction that we made, was purely
Speaker:coming from that, that I trust you, that you will do this.
Speaker:And so that was the biggest.
Speaker:Yeah, I think that was the biggest takeaway and continues to be the biggest takeaway
Speaker:in my transactions as I move forward is I have to trust you
Speaker:to do what I need to do in my life. And
Speaker:that's the best that I can do, is trust you.
Speaker:And that's the beauty of it. The magic that happened after
Speaker:that was unbelievable because
Speaker:we started trusting our next set of people and then the next set of people,
Speaker:and then everybody started trusting each other. And the energy
Speaker:that we shared at rhythm and Hughes India was just brilliant.
Speaker:Was just so beautiful that there
Speaker:was never any kind of politics, there was never any kind of
Speaker:backstabbing. There was no room for that.
Speaker:So we just loved doing our work, and
Speaker:we continue to do the best quality of work. And
Speaker:we partnered with our studios in the
Speaker:US. We worked so hard, and
Speaker:we ended up winning a couple of Oscars again.
Speaker:So for people who don't know animation or why in the world
Speaker:animation would be working in India, can you talk about sort
Speaker:of the relationship and work patterns
Speaker:that were of that era?
Speaker:I think visual effects was very nascent, or it
Speaker:was very upcoming in India. Back then, like, we're talking
Speaker:2000 something, very early 2000,
Speaker:there was a lot of passion. There was a lot of
Speaker:art. There was understanding, but there was no technology. And
Speaker:then if the technology was there, the technical expertise
Speaker:wasn't there because we hadn't delivered that many films.
Speaker:So to start something from scratch
Speaker:and to build everything from scratch was very
Speaker:hard to educate people, to
Speaker:appreciate people, to value people. Those were the
Speaker:things that did not exist back then.
Speaker:People were so threatened if
Speaker:one person left the studio and went to the other studio because
Speaker:there was a lot of insecurity, and we took that out of our system. We
Speaker:said, it's okay. You should be here only if you're happy. If you're
Speaker:not happy, then you have the complete right to move
Speaker:outside and do whatever you like. And so those kind of
Speaker:conversations kind of built something
Speaker:very beautiful in India, I would say.
Speaker:There was also, though, a benefit of being halfway around the
Speaker:clock as well for fast turnaround projects. So it wasn't
Speaker:that you guys worked by yourselves, but you were
Speaker:intertwined with fast moving projects that were based in the United
Speaker:States. Right. It was literally, I think we were
Speaker:the first studio in the entire world that
Speaker:did what we did, that it was not an outsourcing model.
Speaker:It was the same studio. We were one
Speaker:studio. We were just, like, in two different places. And then we became
Speaker:three, and then we became four. We became five eventually. So
Speaker:from India, we went to Malaysia. We started another studio in Malaysia, another
Speaker:studio in Taiwan, but we tried and maintained that
Speaker:same thread. It was like
Speaker:a pearl necklace, but all the pearls were strung to that
Speaker:invisible string. So we basically worked as
Speaker:one studio. And it was beautiful. Like the supervisors
Speaker:that were there in LA, how much they invested their
Speaker:time and energy and trust in the artists in India, and the same
Speaker:way, vice versa, that the artists in India, Malaysia, and
Speaker:Taiwan invested their time and energy in partnering.
Speaker:And it was a true partnership in so many beautiful ways.
Speaker:So how did you transition from that
Speaker:experience to your next adventure?
Speaker:Was. I mean, so how did that
Speaker:close and how did the next open, and how did that change for
Speaker:you? I think
Speaker:I've spent about 13 some years at rhythm and
Speaker:Hughes, and it was time for
Speaker:the next big step to happen.
Speaker:And so when DreamWorks had reached
Speaker:out many times to come and join them and to lead their
Speaker:studio in Bangalore, I was always like,
Speaker:no, I'm doing what I'm doing here. I don't think I should dilute my
Speaker:energy and jump places. I was very adamant about
Speaker:moving, but then they finally offered a position
Speaker:that I absolutely loved, which was to come and be a part
Speaker:of the leadership team in the visual development and
Speaker:storytelling. And I was like, oh, my God, that's exactly
Speaker:what drives me. That motivates me. And
Speaker:they were very amazing. They were like, come to
Speaker:Glendale, come work out of here, go to Shanghai, work
Speaker:with the OW team, Oriental DreamWorks team, and then keep coming
Speaker:back to the DreamWorks office in LA. So I was hired to
Speaker:be in LA, and then eventually they said, go to
Speaker:Shanghai and help champion the Chinese talent
Speaker:there. And that was such a brilliant experience
Speaker:that I had because I'd already
Speaker:traveled to Malaysia and worked there for about five or six years.
Speaker:I'd been in Taiwan for about three to four years. But
Speaker:China is a completely different.
Speaker:It was completely different because,
Speaker:so I would say they're so
Speaker:proud of what they do. And I never felt that with other
Speaker:countries as much as I felt that with China.
Speaker:And the language was also another very big thing because they were
Speaker:very shy and they wouldn't speak in English. We
Speaker:always had a translator, so that was a challenge. But it was also amazing
Speaker:that they stuck to their roots. They really
Speaker:felt like they could communicate and they could get others
Speaker:to listen to what they had to communicate at their terms. And I was
Speaker:like, there was such a big learning experience to say,
Speaker:you respect who you are culturally.
Speaker:You don't have to change, you just be who you are.
Speaker:And I love that. I love that about a lot of the
Speaker:things that I learned from there. The one thing I do have
Speaker:to say is having worked with over
Speaker:2000 OD people in the visual effects, some of the top people in
Speaker:the visual effects and animation industry in the world,
Speaker:and traveled all these places, I believe that talent is
Speaker:universal.
Speaker:It just takes a little bit of love, it just takes a little bit of
Speaker:trust and the magic happens.
Speaker:And that is the learning that I have taken and I continue to take every
Speaker:time I speak to someone because I see the potential.
Speaker:I see the potential and I'm amazed, like,
Speaker:oh, my God, how did this happen in five weeks? How did this
Speaker:happen in such a short time? So I'm always,
Speaker:so this was a. Step into Vani as storyteller
Speaker:and story curator. How did that then
Speaker:work its way into now? Vani as
Speaker:independent voice studio
Speaker:creator, how did that journey continue?
Speaker:My time at DreamWorks was amazing because I was so close to
Speaker:storyboard artists. And every day I was
Speaker:writing, every day I was in this creative
Speaker:space and it wouldn't stop. We were
Speaker:constantly generating ideas to pitch, to
Speaker:present, to listen. And my
Speaker:role as the person that was in charge of all these
Speaker:departments, I just couldn't stop thinking and writing.
Speaker:And my father had passed away and I
Speaker:remember I was sharing my dad's experience with somebody
Speaker:at remarks, and they said, oh, my God, you got to tell that story.
Speaker:That's the story I want to see on screen. And I was like, you're choking,
Speaker:right? And they're like, no. And these were very senior
Speaker:people at DreamWorks. And they're like, unless you don't write it,
Speaker:unless you don't put it out there, how is anything going to happen?
Speaker:And that was the,
Speaker:I think somewhere that
Speaker:spark kind of took space.
Speaker:I just don't know when it happened, but I knew
Speaker:I had to do something. I knew I had to
Speaker:tell stories that had that original
Speaker:voice and I didn't know how to do
Speaker:it on my own. 2ft I have always worked for very big
Speaker:studios, Academy Award winning studios, but
Speaker:to say, I'm going to try this. And so
Speaker:dancing Atoms happened. So what
Speaker:was the first part of that journey? What was your first creative
Speaker:steps?
Speaker:I think the biggest risk that I took
Speaker:was that I started writing for animation and I realized
Speaker:that it was impossible make something in animation on
Speaker:your own because it requires a lot of people. It
Speaker:requires a huge amount of talent
Speaker:to create anything of decent quality back
Speaker:then. And so I put that aside for a
Speaker:while and I said, okay, what else can I do on my 2Ft? And
Speaker:I've always been a travel
Speaker:photographer. I've trekked the Himalayas and I've always take
Speaker:my camera with me. So I said, what can I do with my camera? What
Speaker:can I do? With the bare minimum,
Speaker:I did save up some money and one of the options was go to film
Speaker:school and do film school and start from there.
Speaker:Or the other idea was, would you spend $200,000 going
Speaker:to film school, or would you just pick up
Speaker:your camera and go do whatever you want to do and learn
Speaker:that way? So I said, okay, I'm going to teach myself filmmaking. I'm going to
Speaker:teach myself to be everything that I've always
Speaker:wanted to be, to direct, to be a cameraman,
Speaker:to edit, to do everything right. And
Speaker:so I literally picked up by Nikon
Speaker:D 80 or D 90, whatever that
Speaker:was back then, and talked to a bunch of my friends
Speaker:and they were like, what are you planning on doing? I'm like, oh, I want
Speaker:to go do this film. They're like, oh, great, just get a bunch of good
Speaker:lenses. And then I went and picked up a
Speaker:few great lenses and started filming up
Speaker:in the mountains. And I did my first documentary
Speaker:and it was unscripted. I just went and
Speaker:filmed whatever I felt like
Speaker:that spiritually called me, I would
Speaker:say. And so I started gathering all the material
Speaker:and did my first feature documentary.
Speaker:So you have, from that start, moved
Speaker:through a fair number of spaces and creative
Speaker:ventures. What have been the most pivotal
Speaker:turns and what has blossomed the most of
Speaker:the seeds you've planted on this so far?
Speaker:If you talk to any filmmaker who's independent, they'll tell you
Speaker:the journey is really long.
Speaker:What I have done on my way as an independent
Speaker:filmmaker is I think
Speaker:I've given myself the permission to play
Speaker:more than anything else,
Speaker:because it's a process. It's not like
Speaker:you're going to get it right the first time. You keep playing with
Speaker:it, you keep experimenting, you fail, and then you
Speaker:cry a little bit and you wake up again. You get at it, and
Speaker:that's basically been the most amazing part of my
Speaker:journey and then finding the few key people that trust
Speaker:me on my way again.
Speaker:Because anything that you do in life, I
Speaker:think you are kind of
Speaker:relating to the other. And that's a very important
Speaker:fact that I use in my life, is who are the
Speaker:people that you can support on their
Speaker:journey and who are the people that can support you on your journey,
Speaker:including the people that are the naysayers. Because the
Speaker:naysayers are equally important
Speaker:because they kind of are like the boosters that
Speaker:are pushing you faster to get there because they are saying,
Speaker:no, you don't deserve this, or, no, you can do this.
Speaker:You can be very negative about them and say, oh, those
Speaker:guys. And you can get angry
Speaker:and upset, but they're also equally important.
Speaker:There's a certain kind of a resistance that forms
Speaker:in pushing you.
Speaker:You need that booster. Think of it like a rocket, right? To
Speaker:launch that rocket out into this space, you need that
Speaker:pressure that kind of pushes you up. And I feel
Speaker:both the good and the bad are absolutely required
Speaker:to be on that journey.
Speaker:That's something that in the programs we do, definitely shows up. We
Speaker:call it the bounce effect, that otherwise
Speaker:you would probably not change and improve. You just skim through the wall, and
Speaker:instead you bounce off the wall and you build either a
Speaker:different sense of direction with more speed or you have to learn how to
Speaker:push through the wall. And either one makes you a better
Speaker:creative than if you just cruise through.
Speaker:But a lot of the time to reframe it, which you reframe. Lovely with that,
Speaker:right? Which, it's not the curse you for standing in my way,
Speaker:but you've derived energy from that interaction or that situation,
Speaker:which is great. I mean, it wasn't like I
Speaker:believed in that in the beginning, but as I kept seeing the
Speaker:pattern of my own mind, I was
Speaker:like, why am I getting so
Speaker:unhappy about this? And
Speaker:I remember being a wonderful, wonderful lady. I
Speaker:forget her name, but she was at an art show,
Speaker:and she said, you should put up your art here. And I was like, no,
Speaker:I don't think people like my art. And then she was like,
Speaker:well, there'll be 19 people that will not like your
Speaker:art, but there might be one person out of those 20
Speaker:that like your art, and that's the chance you have to take.
Speaker:And so I was very scared. I was very vulnerable. I was very
Speaker:intimidated by naysayers.
Speaker:But I think having that one tiny conversation with a complete
Speaker:stranger in Culver City absolutely
Speaker:changed the way that I looked
Speaker:at naysayers anymore. Because I now count
Speaker:the number of people that are saying no to me, because I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker:I'm going to get that one person to say yes to me. And I
Speaker:think that's the beauty.
Speaker:You just walk your path and just have fun,
Speaker:and it'll happen. So in your more
Speaker:recent adventures that you have stepped
Speaker:into Unreal and epic and
Speaker:programs to help boost other storytellers,
Speaker:can you talk about this journey into the virtual
Speaker:spaces and how that's let you be then a
Speaker:bigger solo creator? So
Speaker:I would say that since
Speaker:2003, maybe almost 20 some
Speaker:years, I've been doing a lot of pro bono,
Speaker:nonprofit stuff in the visual effects and animation community,
Speaker:through CFI India, through women in animation,
Speaker:Sigraph Asia,
Speaker:FMX, which is in
Speaker:know Sony Talent League. There's just a lot of amazing
Speaker:things that people are doing to build
Speaker:communities, to bring people together, to share and network
Speaker:and create. So in that process,
Speaker:I've learned from a very, very young age that you
Speaker:alone cannot be the one person.
Speaker:The more you share, the more you give, the
Speaker:bigger you become, the bigger everybody
Speaker:becomes. And that's something that
Speaker:I've been very
Speaker:thankful for people to reach out to me and say, can you
Speaker:do this? Can you build this? It was not just building
Speaker:rhythm and Hughes, but it was also building all these little things around
Speaker:rhythm and Hughes, creating opportunities for myself
Speaker:and people around me. So I
Speaker:realized that while I was struggling, being in Los Angeles,
Speaker:pitching my animated feature films, my preschool shows,
Speaker:I just realized it just takes a lot of time for people to trust
Speaker:you. Whether you can deliver these projects, whether you are the
Speaker:right person, you're a debutant director,
Speaker:will you deliver this project? And they take
Speaker:their time to make those decisions, because it's business at
Speaker:the end of the day, as much as it is fashion, it's art,
Speaker:it's technology, it's also entertainment. And entertainment
Speaker:is about business. So while I was doing all of
Speaker:that, the conversations kind of started
Speaker:to say, why aren't there more
Speaker:women speaking up in Southeast
Speaker:Asia? Why are they not visible? Because
Speaker:I know 30, 40, 50 of them.
Speaker:And so that kind of questioning with the
Speaker:right people, I would say, kind of led me
Speaker:to coining this program with Epic Games
Speaker:called the Woman Creators Program.
Speaker:I had gone through the Epigames
Speaker:Fellowship thanks to a wonderful friend
Speaker:that I met 18 years ago.
Speaker:She was like, hey, I want you to join this Epigames Fellowship. And I
Speaker:was like, okay, I am not the right person. Again, I'm
Speaker:not a visual effects artist. You should find somebody to do this program. And she
Speaker:was like, no, you have to do it. You're a director, you're a
Speaker:filmmaker. We absolutely want you to take this program.
Speaker:And so after a lot of
Speaker:insistence, I was like, okay, I'll do this.
Speaker:And it was a game changer. To use real time
Speaker:technology to visualize an idea
Speaker:in five weeks
Speaker:absolutely changed my mind.
Speaker:It was like, what did I do?
Speaker:Of course, I put in about 14 to 16 hours
Speaker:during the five a program to deliver,
Speaker:but it was doable.
Speaker:The unattainable was attainable. Like,
Speaker:you needed a big studio even to do the basic previsualization. You
Speaker:need so many artists to get there. But with the real time
Speaker:game technology, it was like, oh, my God,
Speaker:this is so cool. This is so amazing. And so that
Speaker:experience. After completing my music video that I directed
Speaker:using the Epic Games real time
Speaker:engine, I started writing
Speaker:the Woman Creators program and really
Speaker:asked for that to become
Speaker:possible. And I would say it took about ten
Speaker:months for that program to get
Speaker:greenlit. And then we did that. And
Speaker:it was a game changer, because I could see that happen to the
Speaker:other creators that we had handpicked, that were all
Speaker:women, and we were like, they were loving it.
Speaker:They went through the same journey that I went through, which was doubt and
Speaker:impostor syndrome, and not sure if they can deliver,
Speaker:not sure if they can do it. But with the right amount of nurturing
Speaker:and mentoring, they all created brilliant
Speaker:projects. So what are
Speaker:you most excited about right now?
Speaker:I'm most excited about two of my projects that just got
Speaker:selected. One project has been picked up by
Speaker:a Canadian studio, which is a preschool
Speaker:show. I'm just hoping it finds home
Speaker:its legacy. It's something that my father and mother had
Speaker:written many, many years ago, almost 30
Speaker:some years ago. And for me to see
Speaker:that happen, because I've rewritten it with a
Speaker:new set of eyes and ears for younger audiences all
Speaker:around the world. It's about family,
Speaker:it's about dance. It's about bringing everybody together. So
Speaker:I'm really excited about that show
Speaker:with my new Canadian partners. And
Speaker:then there's another feature film, which is animated,
Speaker:which got selected into the co production market in
Speaker:India, which is a big deal.
Speaker:It's about friendship. I just
Speaker:can't reveal a lot of the details about what the project is about,
Speaker:but I'm super excited that I'm looking for
Speaker:partners on that.
Speaker:And I have a short film, which is an animated short
Speaker:film, which has also
Speaker:gotten a lot of interest in Los Angeles.
Speaker:I've got a couple of really amazing, talented people that have come
Speaker:on board that have been part of the Academy Awards,
Speaker:who've won the Academy Awards and stuff. So
Speaker:I'm really excited to partner with them and push
Speaker:that short film forward as well. Some more
Speaker:directing, more directing, fabulous stuff. So
Speaker:we could talk probably on any of these projects for an hour or more.
Speaker:You've got such a rich experience base, but we're near the end of our
Speaker:episode. Thank you. What have we not talked about
Speaker:that you would love to make sure we talk about before we wrap
Speaker:up?
Speaker:Um, I think
Speaker:look to your right, look to your left. You know, look
Speaker:all around and trust people around you.
Speaker:Give people opportunities.
Speaker:Because whatever my journey is, is going to be my
Speaker:journey. But along with me are many others who are also on their
Speaker:journey. So I would always say,
Speaker:build that tribe, build that community, because it means a lot
Speaker:when you have to do big projects. You really need
Speaker:that team, you really need those inspiring,
Speaker:talented people. I do.
Speaker:So I always feel like
Speaker:just create more opportunities for different
Speaker:people all around the world.
Speaker:So who would you like to reach out to you? And
Speaker:how would you like them to reach out?
Speaker:With a magic wand. Who would you like to reach out to you right
Speaker:now? I think people can go to my website, which
Speaker:is
Speaker:www.dancingatoms.com.
Speaker:They could also drop me an email. I'm on
Speaker:LinkedIn. You can connect with me on LinkedIn
Speaker:and say, hey, I heard this and this is what I'd like to do, or
Speaker:whatever that they want to say and reach out. But I'm basically really
Speaker:looking at producers to come on board to get my projects
Speaker:to the next level. Absolutely. We'll put all your
Speaker:contact information in the show notes. Thank you.
Speaker:We'll try to keep your adventures updated there as well because you've got so much
Speaker:going on. Vani, thank you so much for joining. Really,
Speaker:really appreciate. Thank you so much for making
Speaker:this happen. It means a lot to me. It does.
Speaker:Thank you.
