00:00:00 – 00:00:08 Nitin Bajaj

Hey everyone, welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj, and joining me today is Shivang Mehta. Shivang, welcome on the show.

00:00:09 – 00:00:12 Shivang Mehta

Hey Nitin, thank you for having me. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while.

00:00:13 – 00:00:17 Nitin Bajaj

Yeah, me too. Great to have you here. Let’s start with who is Shivang?

00:00:18 – 00:00:44 Shivang Mehta

Well, so Shivang, I was — I was born in India, and I moved here when I was like 2 years old. First generation, I remember, is getting sent to like a a nursery school. It was actually a nun, like a school, like run by nuns. And I remember the nap time. They’d feed us, and then they’d — it was nap time, and I was completely against this.

00:00:45 – 00:01:14 Shivang Mehta

Apparently I would just run around and take the blankets off the other children so that they couldn’t sleep either, you know? And so there was a little bit of, I feel like, mischief in me from a very young age. And, you know, some of that has gotten me into trouble as I’ve gotten older, and some of it it’s taken me on some left turns, you know? When I heard that story back told to me, I was like, yeah, that’s me. I don’t want to follow these other rules imposed for some reason.

00:01:15 – 00:01:38 Shivang Mehta

I — I’m a Southern California kid. I moved to Southern California when I was 5 years old, and so to me, that’s home, you know? Not India, for example, you know? So I feel like that shaped me a lot. And that was difficult, right? To go to school, learn, and like be in the English culture, and then come home, and then you’re part of a different culture.

00:01:38 – 00:02:04 Shivang Mehta

So which culture am I in? And so there was a lot of that kind of cultural confusion. Am I American? Am I Indian? You know? And I think a lot of that is in my work. There’s this idea of which culture am I in, you know? Because I still, to this day, it’s — it’s like, what’s going on in the world, you know? Where do I belong? And I think I’ve always been still kind of chasing that. That’s sort of been my journey up to this point.

00:02:05 – 00:02:16 Nitin Bajaj

And I relate and resonate with a lot of that, especially when we talk about the whole ethnicity versus identity. You know, it’s not a dilemma, but it kind of is.

00:02:17 – 00:02:17 Shivang Mehta

Yeah.

00:02:18 – 00:02:36 Nitin Bajaj

Especially for people that were either born and raised here, or specifically born here as first generation. The parents, the culture, the intersection of all of that, and trying to find your own feet to belong.

00:02:37 – 00:02:49 Nitin Bajaj

Just being mindful, respectful, cognizant of the fact that you’re literally straddling two worlds, and within that, trying to find your own identity.

00:02:49 – 00:03:08 Nitin Bajaj

And our community as such hasn’t really done, I would say, a good job of that. But fortunately, now there are some steps that are being taken to help resolve that.

00:03:08 – 00:03:08 Shivang Mehta

Yes.

00:03:09 – 00:03:17 Nitin Bajaj

And many people, including yourself, would be able to contribute to that and help the next generation belong in those areas.

00:03:19 – 00:03:41 Shivang Mehta

Yeah, it’s definitely true. Because I know also that it’s like, like my parents were also trying to figure it out. I mean, that was — it’s sort of so we’re all trying to figure it out together. But it’s like, at some point you’re like, you know, I need to go my own way, you know, here. And so — and then, you know, that was hard. I mean, definitely one of the hardest things was telling my parents that I was going to be a filmmaker. That went over well, especially for Indian parents.

00:03:41 – 00:04:08 Shivang Mehta

You know, I think initially they were like, well, he’ll get over it. Right? Like, it’s — it’s a phase, you know? And it’s like, you know, as I kept taking classes in film school, I mean, it just — I mean, I got A’s in every single film class, but I mean, I wasn’t succeeding in any of the other ones, you know? And so to me, it was like, well, I think this is it. I mean, I don’t really see any other path here, you know?

00:04:08 – 00:04:32 Shivang Mehta

And like, being a doctor, being a, you know, IT — my dad was in IT — so those seemed like the paths that I should have gone down, and even tried to. And I was like, yeah, I’m not going to be able to look at an open wound, you know? Like, I’m not — I’m not going to be a doctor. Like, that’s not going to happen. So it just — it slowly just was like, no, I think I have to do this. You know, I have to pursue.

00:04:33 – 00:04:53 Shivang Mehta

Even if there was no family support, I think I would have done that. But I was fortunate that eventually I was able to convince them to, you know, at least, you know, get a loan, you know, to send me to college, you know? And so it worked out, you know? But it was still a difficult, difficult thing to convince my parents that, hey, this is the right path for me.

00:04:53 – 00:05:10 Nitin Bajaj

I can relate to that. Now, obviously you made the transition. You were successful in — it’s an ongoing thing, but you were able to convince them, at least for a moment in time, to let you choose this path. And very recently you launched Mehta Studios, so congratulations on that.

00:05:10 – 00:05:10 Shivang Mehta

Thank you.

00:05:11 – 00:05:23 Nitin Bajaj

Tell us what that journey has been so far, and where do you see you and Mehta Studios in the near term?

00:05:23 – 00:06:24 Shivang Mehta

Yeah, so Mehta Studios actually was born after another one of my sort of companies didn’t — it didn’t work out. We’ll just — we’ll just leave it at that. And it was sort of like, well, where do I go from here? And again, right as I was actually formulating Mehta Studios, it was actually COVID when — when it was like, the world is collapsing now. All the movie studios were closed. I had some momentum on some — a movie that I was getting to launch, you know, through these other media companies, and it all just stopped. Like, it literally just all collapsed, you know? And it just seemed like, are they ever going to — are they ever going to make movies again? You know, it was — it was a chaotic time. And it’s like, well, should I just stop? Like, should I just, like, not do this? And it dawned on us, I think we’re going to have to do this ourselves. You know, we’re — we’re not going to be able to rely on Hollywood to do it.

00:06:24 – 00:07:30 Shivang Mehta

And it’s interesting because earlier in 2019, right before, you know, it all hit the fan, I should say. Like, I was in a film festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, and it was really a great festival. And, you know, filmmakers from all over the world came to this festival. And I realized that they had all the resources they needed to make — they didn’t need Hollywood. They weren’t — they didn’t even have any aspirations to come there. They were just like, hey, I’m doing my own thing, you know, in my, you know, Scandinavian country, and they’re paying us, you know, the government funds them. It’s — they have a pathway to make a living. And that was kind of an eye-opening thing. And I was like, well, I think that that’s what we’re going to — even though I live in the States and Hollywood’s right in my backyard, I’m going to have to do it myself. Because — and prophetically, like, that’s — I mean, over the last 6 years, with the strikes and just, you know, everything, it got — Hollywood got crippled. And it was — it’s like, you know, we are — yeah, we are going to have to do this independently ourselves.

00:07:30 – 00:08:17 Shivang Mehta

And so that was sort of the genesis of it, of like, okay, but how do you run a studio? Or how do you even — like, how do you even conceive of that? Like, how can you get to the level of Paramount or Disney or Warner Brothers, you know, when you’re one guy on a couch, you know? And it’s like, it just — it was about building a team. I think that’s really what it showed me. It’s like, you know, if your dream is just you, it’s — that’s not a good dream. You know, I’ve heard this over and over again in entrepreneurial circles. It’s like, if you’re just dreaming for yourself, that’s not worth it. So that’s when it became okay, let’s go build a team. You know, and that was challenging. It took a long time, much longer than I anticipated.

00:08:17 – 00:09:00 Shivang Mehta

But then in 2025, so just — yeah, just last year, is when I launched the official production for our first feature. I figured, if we’re going to do a studio model, you have to be the subject, you know, the test subject, you know? And so before I can get anyone else to come on board and follow our guidelines or our way of doing things, like, I have to have a proof of concept, right? I have to prove that we can do it. That’s when we sort of officially — so I’ve sort of not handled studio kind of stuff just quite yet, because I wanted to make the movie first before we go into — but there’s definitely a path or a plan for the future to scale up, I guess, to that level.

00:09:01 – 00:09:27 Shivang Mehta

I mean, it’s going to take time, you know? And it’s — again, it’s one of those things, like right now it feels like a pie-in-the-sky dream. But seeing how Hollywood has behaved over the last 20, 30 years, you’re kind of like, what? Like, this — this is how you run a studio? Like, you know, like, it seems baffling. So it’s almost like nobody knows anything. So we’re just going to do it our own way, forge it our own way.

00:09:29 – 00:10:09 Nitin Bajaj

I love that. So you’re at that phase now where you were in the industry for about 10 or 12 years. You saw things, you worked on things, you worked with a lot of brands, production houses, and then you said, well, I’m going to go out, venture on my own, see how things work. And you’ve almost kind of taken this approach of, let me go build this model. And you’re working on your first feature, and you now have an international team where you have people in Europe, in India, and obviously in the US. And you’re getting ready to launch your first feature, which is super exciting.

00:10:09 – 00:10:12 Shivang Mehta

Thank you. Yeah, it’s exciting and nerve-racking. Yeah.

00:10:12 – 00:10:17 Nitin Bajaj

Of course. It has to be, right? And what’s a thriller without the adventure?

00:10:18 – 00:10:18 Shivang Mehta

Right.

00:10:19 – 00:10:30 Nitin Bajaj

So in dealing with all of these challenges, what’s the one big challenge you would like to call out?

00:10:30 – 00:11:09 Shivang Mehta

One big challenge? It is — film has always been a collaborative medium. And so to me, it is — the thing that has actually been the most challenging is — it’s that. It’s finding the right collaborators. And the only way I feel like you can do it is, sadly, trial and error, you know? And sometimes it costs your mistakes, you know, you hire the wrong person, it costs you dearly, you know? And to the point where you may not want to keep pursuing this venture, you know? You’re like, why did I bring that person around? So that — it’s like, how do you find the right people, you know?

00:11:09 – 00:11:46 Shivang Mehta

And funny enough, I mean, one of the — you actually had to help me tremendously in the movie. And the visual effects, for example, are now being handled in India. And, you know, my movie, Landlord, that — so that feature, I — when I wrote it, I did not envision for it to have this many special effect shots. But then as we shot it, and then there was, you know, mistakes, complications. Again, hiring the right — you know, getting the right people there was challenging, you know? And so we had to let people go, shift the pieces around a little bit, and we got our movie.

00:11:46 – 00:12:29 Shivang Mehta

But I think that is going to — I don’t know. I think that’s going to remain one of the challenges, is finding the right people. And if you look at movie — like, filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson and Christopher Nolan, they are always working with the same people. It’s — and they’re — now I realize, having gone through this, there is a reason for that. Because there is a trust level that has been built there for 10, 15 years. Now, I haven’t been doing it for that long. So I understand. But I feel like that’s going to remain the challenge even 10, 15 years down the line. You have to make sure that you’re bringing on board the right people. And I think you can’t do that — know that until you meet them.

00:12:29 – 00:12:38 Nitin Bajaj

So true. Now, on the flip side of challenges come opportunities. What’s the most exciting one that’s in front of you?

00:12:39 – 00:13:01 Shivang Mehta

Oh, yeah. Well, it’s — because — so you had touched on previously, you know, I’ve worked in the industry, you know, quite extensively, you know, working in — in TV mostly, doing everything from development to physical production to post-production. I’ve worked the gamut of TV.

00:13:01 – 00:13:31 Shivang Mehta

And I think that experience — because being in the trenches, that is really what even gave me the confidence to launch something like Mehta Studios or to even be able to, you know, Monday morning quarterback, like, what is this movie really? Like, how did they do that? You know? It’s like, I think that experience has allowed me to get to this level of, okay, I think I can build a studio and make a movie and expand this business.

00:13:31 – 00:13:52 Shivang Mehta

I think for me, the biggest challenge is how could I take this international? You know, I mean, as you mentioned, I have already — I think it’s still a small scale. You know, I have composers in London, visual effects being done in India. I have a colorist in Texas, you know, sound designer in Michigan. So it’s completely all over the map, you know?

00:13:52 – 00:14:10 Shivang Mehta

And so I think it would be interesting to kind of do that on a — like, again, scale up, have multiple productions, multiple places. But first, you know, we got to — we got to walk before we can run. And so — but that, to me, is the challenge. Like, how can I do this on an international level now?

00:14:10 – 00:14:31 Shivang Mehta

Because I’m starting to see that, you know, other countries — Dominican Republic, Colombia — there’s other countries internationally that are given, hey, come here, make movies here. So I think we’re in the right time for us to be able to scale up, because those opportunities are there. So it’s a matter of going out and taking them.

00:14:31 – 00:14:57 Nitin Bajaj

True. Now, as we look forward, I’d like to pause and reflect. I would love to invite you to share two moments. One where things did not work out as you had expected. There was disappointment, failure, lessons. And another where things exceeded your expectations and became a success beyond your imagination.

00:14:58 – 00:15:00 Shivang Mehta

Oh, yeah. Well, those are good questions.

00:15:05 – 00:15:10 Shivang Mehta

You know, I’m thinking — because you said your — sorry, what was your — the first part of your question?

00:15:12 – 00:15:23 Nitin Bajaj

Some experience where things did not work out as you had expected. There was disappointment, failure, lessons.

00:15:23 – 00:16:20 Shivang Mehta

So yeah, there was — I mean, I feel like, yeah, that — I mean, it was definitely during the production of this. It’s during the production of Landlord. I mean, literally day one or two, we could — I knew that there were some things wrong on set, you know? And there was — there was a tension that was there. And funny enough, that’s sort of the subject matter of the movie. There’s a lot of tension in it. And so I feel like the movie is going to be better as a result of that. But it was still kind of challenging and awful to go. It’s like, you know, I remember just — I do remember having a moment on set where I thought, you know, why did I ever think that I could do this? And this has been my dream for 20 years, is to direct a movie. And I was just sitting in that moment going, like, you know, what the heck? How did we get here?

00:16:20 – 00:17:10 Shivang Mehta

And then, like I said, after, you know, I mean, hitting that bottom, I was able to come out and say, okay, here are the things that we need to fix to move forward. But that was a — that was a tough moment to be in. When you’re — you’re — the thing that you’ve dreamed about all your life, it’s finally come true, and you’re like, what am I doing? You know? But that didn’t mean that I have — you know, I have a lot left to learn, right? I’m a first-time director. Even though, you know, I went to film school and I worked in the industry and I did all the things, film directing is extremely challenging. Even if you have gone to film school for, you know, and been dedicated to the craft for 20 years, it’s — being a director is no joke. And so to me, it made me take the job more seriously. And that is when things turned around for me.

00:17:10 – 00:17:47 Shivang Mehta

So that was sort of the despair aspect of it. The good part was, you know, after we wrapped and we kind of, you know, I was still sort of wallowing in a little bit of how it went and how, you know, how other people were treated and stuff. You know, at the end of the day, the film is a reflection of the director, you know? And I’ve heard this all the time. Greta Gerwig, the director of Barbie, she said, you know, only the director really is the reason for a movie to exist. They have to be the ones pushing the movie forward. And I remember hearing that and a light bulb turned on. And I was like, oh, yeah, right.

00:17:47 – 00:18:21 Shivang Mehta

I mean, I could sit here and never release this or be sad or, like, be, you know, depressed about this. But — or I could, you know, put the director cap on and, like, how do we make this the best movie possible? And once I started thinking that way, that’s when all the other — the avenues sort of presented themselves. Oh, we should work with this person. We should — but when I didn’t — before even having that cap on, you’re just sitting, you’re wallowing in it, you know? And so I wanted to — I needed that to come out of it, you know? But so the positive out of that.

00:18:21 – 00:18:58 Shivang Mehta

So when I finally did get on that road, and something that really surprised me was meeting Vijay, who you know, and he’s basically running our visual effects in India. And initially we were, you know, trying to work with him much early on in the process, and it just — the timing wasn’t right. And I sort of went back to him much pretty recently, actually, and was like, hey, man, is there just any way you can help me with this? And to his credit, you know, they gave me a very reasonable quote on some pretty difficult visual effects.

00:18:58 – 00:19:32 Shivang Mehta

And there were some moments there where they were like, they had told me, we’re going to — we can’t do this. Like, we quoted you, but this is, like, way too hard for us. It’s way — but they figured it out. Like, what was so amazing is that they sat — they spent the time and figured out that there’s a sequence in our movie where they’re de-aging. We have to de-age the actors. And it took a long time to figure that out. And for the long time, it just didn’t look good. It just wasn’t working. And there was a Eureka moment, and it just — it works now.

00:19:32 – 00:19:57 Shivang Mehta

So like, now, like, I can’t wait for people to see this, because I feel like we also did it on a fraction of the budget that something like The Irish, you know, Martin Scorsese de-aged Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. It probably cost hundreds of millions of dollars to do that. We did that in a fraction of the cost. So that’s something that I’m very excited about and proud of, that we did that. But, you know, we had to go through it. You do have to go through it.

00:19:57 – 00:20:01 Nitin Bajaj

I love that. Now, switching gears, what do you do for fun?

00:20:03 – 00:20:28 Shivang Mehta

Oh, man. I — it’s funny. I really — I mean, I got into baseball in — you know, I don’t play or anything like that, but I love going to Dodger Stadium. Dodger, you know, I’m wearing blue now. I’m like, I got really into the Dodgers. Again, it was during COVID when there was just, like, nothing else to do. And it was something that focused me, funny enough. So I love going to Dodger games, watching Dodger games.

00:20:28 – 00:21:01 Shivang Mehta

I mean, I have a chess fan. I do like playing chess. Me and my friend will sometimes just, like, meet up in the Burbank Mall and we’ll play chess there, you know? And it’s just — yeah, I definitely like also just going to film festivals, going to, you know, museums, any of that — anything where you’re just surrounded by the arts. You know, I’m a fan of all the arts, you know? So it’s — yeah, those are — anything that’s art-related, I think, to me, is just fun.

00:21:02 – 00:21:05 Nitin Bajaj

Love that. Now, onto my favorite part of the show.

00:21:06 – 00:21:06 Shivang Mehta

Yeah?

00:21:06 – 00:21:08 Nitin Bajaj

We call this the one-line life lessons.

00:21:08 – 00:21:08 Shivang Mehta

Okay.

00:21:09 – 00:21:13 Nitin Bajaj

Shivang, I would love for you to share your life lessons with us.

00:21:13 – 00:21:15 Shivang Mehta

Okay. Yeah, you know,

00:21:19 – 00:22:02 Shivang Mehta

I think early on, when you have failure, you know, you think that, okay, that’s it. I guess I’m not going to be good at this, you know, or I won’t be able to do this. But really, you know, failure is just the beginning. You know, it’s not final. You know, that’s sort of something that I had to come around to for a while, was that failure isn’t final. It’s like, okay, well, that attempt failed for sure, you know? But you can try again. You know, it is definitely the — I think I saw a TED Talk once on, like, the Super Mario effect of, like, you just — you just have to keep — if you die, you’re reborn. You got to keep — you just got to keep at it.

00:22:02 – 00:23:02 Shivang Mehta

And I think that sort of led to my second lesson, was it is persistence. You have to, especially in this business, which is literally changing by the minute. I mean, something probably happened from the beginning of this interview that’s — it’s going to change Hollywood tomorrow, you know? So you have to constantly be changing, evolving, adapting, you know, your techniques, methods, that kind of thing. And that’s hard. I mean, that’s — it’s a — but that is the sort of dedication that it — you know, to the craft. But that definitely was something. I mean, I — you know, especially for directing, it’s like, you have to direct. You know, the only way to be a director is to direct. So you have to keep — and I’ve heard that advice so many times. And I’m just like, yeah, yeah, whatever, you know? Like, but I had — you know, I hadn’t directed anything. So it’s like, okay, no, they’re right. Like, I have to go out. You do have to keep doing it, you know, and keep showing up.

00:23:02 – 00:23:36 Shivang Mehta

And I do think that as a filmmaker, you do have to have something to say. It can’t just be filming something that looks cool, you know? There’s got to be a point of view. There has to be a narrative or an idea, you know? Not necessarily a message, but there has to be some point of view that you’re trying to show. And how — well, how would you know what that is unless you have to go and, like, live life? You have to go through some things. You do have to face these failures, and then you’d have to come back to it, you know?

00:23:36 – 00:24:04 Shivang Mehta

And these are things that I’m — like, I’m going through it right now, funny enough. And so it’s — even in the final stages of post-production, we’re going through these phases. And it’s a little bit painful. And, you know, you catch a mistake that you made and you’re like, oh, how could I have — you know, I shot this a year ago. How did I not see this until right now? You know? But that’s the process. And that’s another thing that I did learn, is that you — especially for filmmaking, you have to trust the process.

00:24:04 – 00:24:53 Shivang Mehta

And if you remember when I said at my, you know, why did I ever think that I could do that? You know, the answer that I came up with was, when I was in film school, what I did fall in love with in terms of filmmaking was the process. You know, taking something that’s a kernel of an idea. In one person’s mind, now you’re — now millions of people are watching it. There’s something, to me, magical about that. And especially being projected in the dark with other people there, the theatrical experience for sure. There’s something magical about that. And to me, that was — it’s like, I want to dedicate to taking the idea, writing it down, filming it, going through that post-production as grueling as it is, and then exhibiting it and then showing it to people. You know, to me, it’s not a movie until you show it to someone.

00:24:53 – 00:24:54 Nitin Bajaj

True.

00:24:54 – 00:24:56 Shivang Mehta

So you have to go through that whole process.

00:24:57 – 00:25:05 Nitin Bajaj

I love that. And, you know, the other thing you mentioned, which to me is very important, is this whole journey is also very introspective.

00:25:05 – 00:25:06 Shivang Mehta

Yeah.

00:25:06 – 00:25:10 Nitin Bajaj

You learn more about you going through that journey.

00:25:10 – 00:25:10 Shivang Mehta

Yeah.

00:25:10 – 00:25:11 Nitin Bajaj

And that’s also extremely important.

00:25:12 – 00:25:33 Shivang Mehta

True. Yeah, absolutely. And I — yeah, I learned I get distracted very easily. It’s very easy to, you know? But eventually, at some point, there is that north star that’s like, okay, dude, you got to, like, you got to get this through, you know? And actually, that happened to me this year in the middle of post-production.

00:25:33 – 00:25:59 Shivang Mehta

I remember — I mean, there were — there’s still many steps, you know, remaining before — we’re there. We’re so close. But I remember thinking, you know, I’m not — I’m not a wannabe anymore. For so many — up until before this year, I wanted to make a movie. And I would tell my friends, this is the year I’m making a movie. I’m going to do it. Oh, watch me, you know? And, like, another year would go by and nothing. And nothing.

00:26:00 – 00:26:28 Shivang Mehta

And it’s like, that was a little bit crushing. It’s like, well, you know, because you’re not even holding up your end of the bargain to yourself, you know? And that was incredibly frustrating. But then this year, I’m going, oh, wait a minute. No, I am a filmmaker. I — you know, I have a short coming out this weekend, you know, at a festival in Hollywood. And here we are in post-production on Landlord. And so it’s starting to happen, and it’s happening. So I just — again, I just have to trust the process.

00:26:30 – 00:26:42 Nitin Bajaj

Shivang, thank you so much for making the time to share your journey, your story, and your life lessons. I’m super excited about this first release, and I know this is the first of many more to come.

00:26:43 – 00:26:50 Shivang Mehta

Yeah, I can’t wait to share it with you. And honestly, Nitin, thank you so much for giving me the platform. And it was a pleasure chatting with you today.