In a world of Windows Movie Maker, where everything is made easy with just a few clicks, a little soul that was passionate about movie-making began blazing trails from age nine. Yes, you read that right! I will repeat, age nine! If you imagine him doing the ten-year challenge, I am pretty sure you will see ten good, productive and fruitful years of movie making. Without further ado, here is Srinath Ranganathan, a 19-year-old Visual Communication student from SRM University and an alumnus of Vels who has been dreaming big and working hard to bring about Hollywood-style visual effects and movie-making techniques to India.

Get filmy: Uruvan was a short film that Srinath and his brother Srikanth worked on together 

How did he know that movie-making was his thing? Let’s find out, shall we? “I don’t know how I got to where I am today, because as far as my knowledge is concerned, none of my relatives or close contacts was into filmmaking. I feel nostalgic about the time I first shot a short film with my Sony camera. I was in grade five when I started and I have been shooting ever since,” smiled Srinath.

If Brad Pitt or Brad Paisley inspire individuals to become actors or Ariana Grande inspires people to become singers, then there has to be some force-figure that inspires Srinath to excel in film making, right? He says his first inspiration was the Spiderman movie, “I was so fascinated by the visual effects in that movie. Let me remind you that visual effects is a world in itself and a visual effects artist is a God to that world. That was when I began up-skilling myself. I am grateful for the internet for playing a vital role in helping me learn and upgrade my then acquired new skill,” he said.

Bros for life: Srinath and Srikanth Ranganathan started off their YouTube channel a couple of years ago

In today’s day and age, YouTube has become a sensation, with a billion subscribers, views, likes and hits. This platform, if used in the right manner, can do wonders and that is what Srinath sought to do ­— to promote his videos and short films. Srinath walked us through how he set up his YouTube channel and his future plans for it, “My brother, Srikanth Ranganathan and I started a YouTube channel TheExpertFx and we wrote scripts together for our short films. Since his big move to the US, we haven’t been able to shoot videos together for obvious reasons, but we still work on the creative aspects of the videos in the making.” In a very ambitious tone, he continued, “Most films in India primarily focuses on the storyline and the filmmakers quite often forget the importance of the technical qualities that build a film and the negative effects thereafter. This is where I see a door of opportunity and I hope to bring in Hollywood quality of filmmaking to India and bring to perfection every aspect of filmmaking from pre-production to the post-production stages.”