S2E2 - Me Against the World short film with Writer/Creator Mohana Rajakumar

[00:00:00] Hello Internet, I'm Andrew Donald and this is Kickstart My, a CrowdFunding Podcast.

[00:00:05] On this episode we talk to Mahana Regicumar, a novelist professor and now feature film writer

[00:00:11] about a kickstart project, me against the world. Me against the world is a short film about

[00:00:16] how who we are and how others perceive us are not always the same thing.

[00:00:21] And me against the world we are introduced to Mala, whose unlikely friendship with Doug revisits

[00:00:25] when Harry Met Sally, but for a new generation with an insertual twist.

[00:00:29] The roots of this project originated as the short story down in Mahana's weeds and other

[00:00:34] stories collection. The short that trying to produce is an extract from the feature screenplay

[00:00:39] that was a semi-finalist and the human hat is awards and the Austin film festival.

[00:00:44] The kickstarter is still ongoing and by the time you hear this should have at least a week to go.

[00:00:49] So go to kickstart.com and search me against the world and check it out and if you like it.

[00:00:54] Give them your donation. So now without further ado, let's kickstart my short film project, me against the world with

[00:01:03] Mahana Regicumar. So we are here with creator and writer of kickstarter for me against the world, Mahana Regicumar.

[00:01:13] How are you, Mahana?

[00:01:15] I'm doing great and you're thanks for having me.

[00:01:17] Well thank you for joining us on kickstart.com.

[00:01:20] It took us a little second to get connected but we got it.

[00:01:23] We got a bit of a control. So for anyone who doesn't know about your projects, can tell us about it.

[00:01:30] Well I would say this is not another basketball movie but kind of is another basketball movie.

[00:01:36] It doesn't put basketball front in the center of it but kind of explores the emotional landscape of somebody who does play basketball.

[00:01:43] One of the principles is Doug and he is a rising star. He's playing collegiate ball.

[00:01:50] But trying to kind of figure out who he is a side of that.

[00:01:55] And of course he meets Mala, his university assigned tutor to help him, you know, keep his grades up.

[00:02:02] And it's through that relationship. Mala is very bookish but she actually loves basketball.

[00:02:08] She follows all the stats, all the players and so that really surprises him.

[00:02:14] And so through their surprises of each other, they kind of come to figure out who they really want to be.

[00:02:21] Not just who the world thinks they could most easily be.

[00:02:25] Okay. So this started as I think that it's been off of a short story or it was a...

[00:02:31] Yeah that's right. So I wrote a short story called Down back in 2000 when I was in graduate school.

[00:02:37] I was taking it as an elective and it was kind of like an amount of information of experiences that I and other people I knew had had in high school.

[00:02:47] You know, back in 2000 I don't think we have a language to kind of understand who I was depicting but now it's obviously it's looking at people who are kind of on the margins of mainstream culture.

[00:02:59] So what does it mean to be... it first started as a couple of linked scenes in classrooms.

[00:03:05] So we first saw Mala in a classroom being kind of terrorized by kids for being Hindu and then at the same time Doug is, you know, trying to get into the classroom but he's lay and he's being kicked out.

[00:03:19] And then that jeopardizes his ability to play. So all these kinds of different factors that maybe when you and I were kids or anyone's a kid,

[00:03:26] you know, anyone's a kid, you don't understand what's really going on but when you go back and let that you realize all the kind of social factors that are laid on top of our academic experiences.

[00:03:37] And so clearly it's been a long time coming. You've had this kind of percolating for a while and you've kept it fresh in your mind still.

[00:03:46] Well, I was in novelist's while I am a novelist in the guess that I was talking about for about 15 years and I love my books and it was kind of like books are kind of like children, you know people say oh which one's your favorite and you can't you shouldn't.

[00:04:03] As you were so behind you.

[00:04:13] He says he's listening.

[00:04:14] They're always listening.

[00:04:17] But I did feel that I felt kind of, I felt creatively I had done everything that I could with the books and I really wanted I was looking for a new challenge and then that's from the pandemic hit.

[00:04:30] And one of the silver linings so many many challenges but there were a few silver linings was time you know I think most of us were lucky enough to have more time and for me that was a course.

[00:04:42] But for me being a writer or found me back at my desk and really entering into the world of film and adapting scripts.

[00:04:52] I wrote this but I also wrote three or four other projects and so that's kind of you need a lot of time to make something.

[00:05:02] And so that was the gift of the last year.

[00:05:05] Gotcha.

[00:05:06] So then you had the shorts there at you, it's been around for a while.

[00:05:10] You had the time now to flesh it out, expand it, grow it.

[00:05:14] How did you assemble the team to now turn this into a film?

[00:05:19] So I actually entered the so the shorts are returned into a feature so I kind of have to round it out and expand the world from this from the world of the original world of the story.

[00:05:31] Because Mala and Doug they started in high school and made me go on to university in the story but the film now picks up with them in university when they meet.

[00:05:43] And take them forward from that to when Doug gets drafted for the MBA.

[00:05:49] So lots of nice interesting dramatic moments in there and I entered it into the awesome film festival with 2020 film festival and it made it to the semi final round.

[00:06:03] Which is a really big deal, yeah 13,000 people enter and for my first group played to go that far was like a huge kind of vote of confidence.

[00:06:12] And then while I was writing a sort of sort of thinking, okay what do I want to do?

[00:06:17] I just entered this whole kind of new realm and making a short you know what they tell you in film and maybe even television but particularly in film is like if you want to be in the industry that's what you want to do.

[00:06:31] You need to make one.

[00:06:32] So I just got camera to make one.

[00:06:35] So I did a lot of research, I looked at production companies in Atlanta in Tennessee and LA.

[00:06:43] The additional layers that I actually American Indian American living Qatar most would be here.

[00:06:49] So I knew that this couldn't be a thing that I would piece together because there's like very fixed amounts of time when I was US.

[00:06:57] And I had done some indie documentaries for YouTube about life in Qatar, one on the stand at comedy scene and one on driving in Doha.

[00:07:06] She's very cultural experience.

[00:07:08] So I kind of knew what I was looking for in the question to ask.

[00:07:12] And so the players it was about a six month process to find the production team but they're based in Nashville, Tennessee and I think Nashville is really kind of setting it tight.

[00:07:21] Some being like the next Atlanta you know giving people a experience.

[00:07:25] Yeah, so like tax incentives and there's a lot of talent there.

[00:07:29] And actually this is 75% female lead project.

[00:07:34] So female director, female screenwriters and so that's super exciting for us producers as well.

[00:07:41] And they're all in Nashville.

[00:07:42] So I'm the only one.

[00:07:43] I'm the odd one.

[00:07:44] Okay, that's cool.

[00:07:47] So the kickstart I think has a little over a week left.

[00:07:52] What will completing the kickstart or what you do?

[00:07:55] We've been playing the kickstarters.

[00:07:57] I was like that next vote of confidence if we got like one edge from the film festival.

[00:08:02] And this would be another big match.

[00:08:04] I've been super encouraged.

[00:08:06] I mean, we have about I think 40 backers and we're almost at 50%.

[00:08:11] So that you know the people that are back in the project really believe in the project.

[00:08:15] So it's always kind of like a good vote of confidence to say, oh, I finished right.

[00:08:21] I completed my kickstart.

[00:08:22] Of course.

[00:08:23] And then obviously for actually speaking, it's going to give us the funds to get this short made.

[00:08:28] And the idea is from the short will enter into festivals and you know kind of pitch to different places.

[00:08:34] And the big goal is to get the full feature made.

[00:08:37] Yeah, okay.

[00:08:39] So then harder question if the kickstart or doesn't reach its goal.

[00:08:43] What's next?

[00:08:44] If the kickstart hasn't reached its goal, I mean I am 100% committed to making the film.

[00:08:49] So you know we'll look at writing to folks.

[00:08:52] You know you've always got the option to write to people and say, hey, or campaign didn't make.

[00:08:56] If you still believe in us, get in touch.

[00:08:58] And very kind of sweetly several of the big donors have had already when they put in their pledge that if you don't hit your goal.

[00:09:06] Get in touch because I really want to see you make this movie, which is awesome.

[00:09:10] That is awesome.

[00:09:11] Yeah, and it's interesting because you know kickstart kind of advises you to not go beyond 30 days.

[00:09:16] The in their experience campaigns two weeks to 30 days get funded.

[00:09:20] But they give 45 days.

[00:09:22] And so now in retrospect, I'm thinking, hmm, should have taken the 45 days.

[00:09:27] Should have left home longer.

[00:09:28] It's a very hard thing to figure out.

[00:09:30] And it's, you know, kickstarters sometimes hit them neatly.

[00:09:34] Sometimes they take a little time to build up speed.

[00:09:37] It's, you know, there's no exact formula it seems like.

[00:09:40] Yeah, well you definitely have to bring I mean if you're any of your listeners who are kind of dipping their toe into the kickstart or world.

[00:09:47] You definitely have to bring your initial audience.

[00:09:50] You know even before we launched, I had kind of sent it, sent around the preview link to people.

[00:09:57] Because I wanted, I definitely wanted it to come up and be publicized with at least 5000.

[00:10:02] You can ask for all different kinds of months.

[00:10:04] We're asking for 35, which will cover all of production.

[00:10:08] So that's the crew, the cast, sound, lighting everything.

[00:10:12] And because you don't want anyone to go to a landing page and it says zero.

[00:10:17] Yeah.

[00:10:18] So we were able to do that.

[00:10:19] We've met all of our targets, which is really exciting.

[00:10:22] And now, you know, the next step is to really kind of get broader into that bigger film backing.

[00:10:29] You know, kickstart, if you see not those are some people that that's all they do.

[00:10:33] They look around for projects that they want to support.

[00:10:36] Yeah.

[00:10:37] That's people who got ahead.

[00:10:38] Exactly.

[00:10:39] My perfect sense.

[00:10:40] So outside of this project, how long have you been writing?

[00:10:45] I would say, I mean, how are we going to count?

[00:10:49] It's a weird type of thing to kind of try to trace back your roots.

[00:10:54] Because I wrote a short story from my language arts teacher in elementary school as her birthday present.

[00:11:02] And the great thing about this is she read it and she was like, oh, thanks.

[00:11:07] Oh, you know, I don't know if you saw recently Megan Markle like copyrighted the story that she wrote in eighth grade.

[00:11:14] I did that.

[00:11:15] Yes.

[00:11:16] And it's registered in the Library of Congress.

[00:11:18] So it's so interesting to know, like was that her mom was that teacher because in eighth grade I wrote a 250 page medieval romance.

[00:11:29] And again, I think, we sure, yeah on a dare and he read it and he was like, oh, this is cute.

[00:11:36] And then he just gave back to me.

[00:11:38] That's exactly what you want.

[00:11:41] You want, you have a few sort of explosion.

[00:11:43] This was amazing when you know that age.

[00:11:46] I mean, yeah, I'm saying, well, yeah, I sitting on these movies where the teacher or the professor like the dean of the mentor thing is like, oh, I entered your essay into a contest and then that's like,

[00:11:58] And a lot of these are based on true stories.

[00:12:00] So I was like, hey guys, what was everybody doing when I was like, where was that teacher?

[00:12:04] I actually used to do some of that similar stuff.

[00:12:08] I used to write a little bit more while I was younger.

[00:12:10] And I realized I should have kept doing it because I can't, it's literally like a muscle I can't do it as well as I used to anymore.

[00:12:17] I feel like 16 year old me was a lot better than 37.

[00:12:22] I've got a camera beheld I'm not so free of it.

[00:12:24] But yeah, he was better than that guy.

[00:12:26] Well, I think that we hadn't many fewer inhibitions.

[00:12:31] That's usually like that.

[00:12:33] Yeah, better.

[00:12:34] He might have been more productive.

[00:12:37] That's probably hopefully.

[00:12:39] Hopefully.

[00:12:40] So I've lifted here at your site, a lot of the books you've written.

[00:12:43] They seem to come from kind of a Southeast Asian perspective.

[00:12:47] Is that writing what comes naturally, writing for an audience that you think might be underrepresented or case of both?

[00:12:55] Yeah, I mean in writing they always give you that adage which is right what you know.

[00:13:01] That's that that's a thing.

[00:13:02] And when I was you know coming up or when I was first writing certainly there weren't any any slash many South Asians like for example my one person kind of looks to was Amy Tan right he's you know she's Chinese American.

[00:13:17] And then as I got into graduate school, Jimpoli, hear you know, interpreter from the audience.

[00:13:25] Yeah, so but it certainly in the writing arena it felt that you know publishing houses and agents once they got there one South Asian like oh we've got art.

[00:13:36] You know we've got our Indian writer we've got our vaccinate or we've got whoever we don't need you.

[00:13:43] But in terms of like as a writer.

[00:13:47] I started in that world because that's a little bit of new it was so I didn't see it depicted anywhere you know so I kind of the same generation of like.

[00:13:56] Hassan Manaj and Mindy Kaling and is I'm sorry we're all kind of in the same generation so they were going through what I was going through and I couldn't look to them.

[00:14:05] You know, I couldn't look to their media for comp year entertainment or for guidance because we were all the same age.

[00:14:13] So now I definitely a much more purposeful about you know including those characters because I know that there is and not just I don't think it's just exclusive to this have Asian audience but like any we back kind of hibernated identity now in the US and in the rest of the world like there's British pacifics and English and Indians.

[00:14:34] British Africans so we're all kind of now doing the same thing and looking for a place in the world and I feel that you know people can do that with.

[00:14:47] So they think here just as much as they can anyone else.

[00:14:50] Yeah I mean perspective you know comes from everywhere it's just a matter of paying attention and taking something from it so it makes perfect sense yeah.

[00:15:00] We need more perspective obviously clearly if we look at the world when you need more people's perspective is kind of chiming in here and there.

[00:15:08] So you're a writer you're like a super fesser since you work at university and as you said you've done some Qatar kind of television.

[00:15:21] One thing you didn't mention that on that television you're a bit of a foodie you did like a cooking show I think.

[00:15:27] Yeah I you know it's one of these things with people like I can't keep like what are you doing now I can keep up with you interest.

[00:15:34] I think you know as a one way to kind of keep life interesting and as a creative person just try lots of different things and a couple years ago probably like six and years ago is really into just cooking at home.

[00:15:48] I got really tired of eating out all the time and so there's there's there's there's there's you see a pretty big movement action instagram is called Sunday supper.

[00:15:59] So the thought was that like to really just get people even if they're just cooking one day a week to try to get them to do that and so yeah I did a small cookbook for dummies kind of thing.

[00:16:10] Was it like nine recipes so it's like three starters three main courses three desserts.

[00:16:16] Just as a way to kind of like encourage people to just take a little bit more interest in in what you're eating not just not in a guilty way or you know to start yourself but just to take kind of pleasure and again I was writing so much and writing wonderful but it's so text based that can be draining so I was looking for something else creative to do.

[00:16:39] That would get me off off the screen and away from the page.

[00:16:42] That sounds so.

[00:16:45] You've done all this so far is there anything you feel like you've left that you haven't quite done yet like as there are genre you haven't written is there a thing that like an idea you haven't touched yet that you're like I really need to write something on this or like explore the.

[00:17:03] I don't know if I could do it on my own but I love sci-fi okay absolutely love sci-fi and.

[00:17:10] I have like a little special place in my heart for dystopian sci-fi so you know it's depressing but it's so like I wouldn't go so far as like the road you know.

[00:17:21] I'm a party that was much as a parent.

[00:17:25] But somewhere between I don't know if you've ever seen the expanse.

[00:17:29] Yes.

[00:17:31] Oh it loves the experience. I mean like what it when I finished season five I literally felt like I have moved away from a group of friends you know.

[00:17:40] I was just like oh but I'm not someone to watch this things over means books like there's so much to see in some history so it's just like okay I need to sit with this feeling it's over it's over now.

[00:17:52] So somewhere between the expanse and a quiet place.

[00:17:56] Yeah.

[00:17:57] Yeah.

[00:17:58] Still well and I'm trying to think if there is anything I know of that's maybe south east Asian kind of sci-fi.

[00:18:05] I mean you know there's a lot of things that bother with such as into obviously they've done sci-fi actually kind of elements.

[00:18:12] There's stuff that obviously you know farther Asia has done like you know Japanese does tons of sci-fi.

[00:18:19] I created a video on how to do it.

[00:18:21] I think that was that space pilot was the sun Netflix.

[00:18:25] It was like a space junkers kind of movie but they had a couple big stars and it did really well.

[00:18:31] I don't know if I've seen anything for a while.

[00:18:34] Yeah.

[00:18:35] So let's see that's the back first.

[00:18:38] Sounds like we need to do the first.

[00:18:40] Our fantasy you know world building is just something that I think we want to think of Tolkien and how we're

[00:18:47] going to actually work because as a language good that kind of thing is just so like admirable.

[00:18:54] But you have to see how I don't know if I could.

[00:18:56] I mean it's a lot of work.

[00:18:57] It's like a life effort right there pretty much.

[00:19:01] Okay.

[00:19:02] So then to wrap up final pitch to audience your kickstarter why should they fund it?

[00:19:08] Why is it important why will it change their lives?

[00:19:12] Okay.

[00:19:13] Well, me and the world is a universal story about two people who are trying to find their place in the world.

[00:19:21] And yet at the same time it's a unique love story about two leads in the end and African Americans coming together on screen in a way that we've not seen before.

[00:19:33] So audiences deserve to see this kind of unique content.

[00:19:39] And I know that you know you guys are going to help us make something beautiful together.

[00:19:45] Sounds like a plan.

[00:19:47] So if anyone is now looking for this, you just need to get a kickstarter back home and look up me against the world.

[00:19:54] That will find you this kickstarter by the creator and writer, Mahana Rajakumar.

[00:19:59] You still have time.

[00:20:01] Donate.

[00:20:02] Help them out.

[00:20:04] Help them reach there.

[00:20:06] So Mahana, thank you for talking to us.

[00:20:08] Thanks for having me.

[00:20:10] Alright.

[00:20:11] We'll talk soon.

[00:20:35] Close in in the night in a year and a point in resistance.