Harshrajsinh Gohil

A son of a village development officer from small village in India, who never imagined a life in his tiny house in rural India was jolted to fame by his award winning films, “A Tourist” and “Psych.” When asked about the hardship in the years between, he innocently shrugs as if this kind of success happens to everyone, writes Janhavi Saraf. – @siliconeer #siliconeer #Hollywood @harshrajsinhgo4 #harshrajsinhgohil #ATourist #Psych

While dotting from one rural settlement to another, in his formative years, he never wanted to live a scripted live given by the Indian society. And when he discovered movies, his life changed course. Mostly in 2009 when he joined a school to do Masters in Mass Media, He fell in love with story telling and couldn’t think anything beyond that.

After giving up a lucrative career in advertising, he decided to move to the U.S. and make it big in Hollywood. He spent 3 years educating himself in Los Angeles and learned all aspects of storytelling. The born filmmaker decided to pursue film making. Which he did, in the most unorthodox way possible.

Having borrowed a huge sum of money, Harshrajsinh decided he wouldn’t go down without a fight. And then came “A Tourist” a movie about a journey not very different from his own, conducted by a man not very different from himself.

Harshrajsinh Gohil talks after receiving his award.

The movie was made on a shoestring budget with even the script written on a borrowed laptop, shot on a borrowed camera, in a borrowed car and with actors paid in food! The film went on to bag Best Film and Best actor at NYC Indie Film Awards, won best editor at Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival and at The Hollywood International Moving Pictures Film Festival as well.

Drawing inspiration from his own life and the aid his friends gave him in the time of need, Harshrajsinh’s second movie, “Psych” also won Best Film at Mindfield Film Festival, Los Angeles. He lead a very talented team for both the films as a writer, director and editor.

Results awaiting for other festivals like Finalist in Los Angeles CineFest.,Miami Independent Film Festival, Lake View International Film Festival, Canadian Diversity Film Festival – CDFF

Gohil has worked on various projects at AOL. This past year, he worked on The Zainab Salbi Project, The Huffington Post, a documentary series, which was shot across countries, continents and across cultures.

Interestingly, he found it easy to oscillate between the cultures since he drew inspiration from his life experiences. Moving on from film making, he has managed and directed major film making festivals.

All this at the historic Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. He manages to juggle this with working on an Emmy-nominated director, whose project goes on floor mid-2017. That, and a television pilot that will surely inspire immigrants to follow their dreams, much like himself.

From a village with five hundred population to a town to a metro to the City of dreams, LA, sounds like a dream come true. Gohil could say he has legitimately arrived but “will never stop learning from the stalwarts.”