Rihaan Patel

Rihaan Patel was born in a middle class Patel family of Unjha in Mehsana District of Gujarat, India in year 1988. He lives with his family in Ahmedabad city. He hails from a farmer family who shifted from Mehsana to Ahmedabad decades ago to do business and since then the family is involved in business besides farming. Unlike his family genes of farming and business, Rihaan took the unconventional path and went on to learn about and explore his interests in yoga, philosophy, spirituality, space science, etc. during high school which gradually extended to filmmaking. He was not a scholar, but he was an ardent learner. In school, he was quite fascinated by sci-fi movies and aliens; the larger-than-life glory and grand lifestyle of film characters made him fantasize and dream to be like one. He was greatly influenced by Bollywood blockbusters like Koi... Mil Gaya (2003) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001) in those days. Films has had a tremendous impact on him since his teenage. So much so that he had decided to go to Melbourne, Australia to experience the dazzling life of the city after being captivated by one of the hindi flicks named Salaam Namaste (2005). Soon after completing his 12th grade, he began his efforts to make his dream come true, he started preparing for IELTS. Parallelly he got himself enrolled in acting classes on suggestion of a lady in his IELTS class. This became his first encounter with the world of films. Soon after, he went off to Melbourne for further studies with lot of excitement about the new place and new life that was awaiting him in a foreign country. He was 18 at that time. His acting classes back in India did some good for him in Melbourne. Besides working at the hotel, Rihaan used to take up voluntary jobs at shooting sets in Melbourne. He worked as an actor and production assistant in Channel 31. Though it did not add to his earnings, it earned him some self respect which was lost in the housekeeping job. It served as a stepping stone for him to get exposure to acting and film production which he was now obsessed with. The experience made him realize that he had it in him, that he could act, visualize things, write stories and make films. But he had to give up acting as it was not financially rewarding and his family was worried about his survival in Melbourne as he had lost nearly 20 kgs. in 8 months time. Soon his family called him back to India and he returned with some good and bad experiences he lived during his life-testing struggle period in Australia. It had changed him as a person, he had grown as a person because he had experienced life. Things had changed for him back in his home town too. People looked down at him as a loser who lost his father's money, family pride and education. His friends ridiculed and relatives criticized his decision to go and chase his dream to become 'film hero'. While facing all the criticism after returning from Australia, he chose to believe in himself and have faith in his dreams and abilities to become a good filmmaker. He started doing small roles in theater (stage drama) in Ahmedabad. He didn't even hesitate to work as a spot boy at the sets. Whenever he got to know about auditions for TV commercials, he would go and try. Simultaneously he got into media designing course. As destiny would have it, in 2009, he attended 15 days filmmaking workshop at Institute of Moving Images where he could know and network with other filmmakers. Here he made first one-minute short film of his life which got appreciation of his fellow members and faculty. And it evoked in him the desire to become a filmmaker. He has been writing stories since long but becoming a filmmaker was a rare idea for him until he made his first short film at this workshop. During the workshop he made more short films and his films continued to be appreciated. It marked a new beginning for him after a shattering period of uncertainty, failure and disappointment. While making short films at the workshop, he realized the significance of special effects in making really good and impactful films. So he decided to learn Visual Effects to enhance his filmmaking skills and joined Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) where he learnt Animation and VFX. During his studies at MAAC, he made various short films viz. Dust of Orphan (2009), The Burial of Daughters (2009) and Life Colors Purity (2011). After completing his study, he continued to work on animation and experiment with VFX while he made more short films viz. My Best Friend, Champal, Fading Yellow and 3rd Eye. Each of these films has garnered appreciation, awards and nominations at national as well as international level. Rihaan is highly influenced by films like Inception (2010), Avatar (2009), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Saving Private Ryan (1998) and the likes and dreams to make such world class films on Action, Adventure and Fantasy in his career. Hollywood stalwarts like James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, Orson Welles and Christopher Nolan inspire him to great extent to make films like them.