A story of struggle, false starts, and failure in brutal Bollywood; of not stopping to dream big while continuing to put passion, drive, and creative energies to work – every day.
Dhruvkaran Mehta
There’s something about Dhruvkaran Mehta. One cannot easily define the unique combo of streaks you find in this five-foot something, stout and strong, bearded guy with a ponytail. That may make him stand out in the crowd but one thing you can be sure of – he understands the business of entertainment. The confidence he exudes is infectious and now he is lending that to upcoming talent find a footing in the crowded world of social media and finally taste success.
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From a very early age, he wanted to play a role in theatrics – from storytelling and cinematography to editing and directing. After high school in Delhi, Dhruv went ahead and trained himself in film and music production. As Mumbai beckoned, Dhruv enrolled himself for audio engineering at the prestigious School of Audio Engineering (SAE). While in Mumbai, he took the opportunity to network with the film fraternity in Bollywood. He would visit various film sets to watch shooting in action.
In 2011, after completing his audio engineering, Dhruv started interning at a well-known Bollywood film studio and in his free time practiced cinematography with a DSLR camera and also delved into Miksang photography. Miksang means "good eye" in Tibetan and represents a form of contemplative photography based on the Dharma Art teachings of Chögyam Trungpa. The following year, he attempted his first film – ‘Her Grey Self,’ which he finally decided to scrap as he says, “I wasn’t very happy with the outcome.”
It was a disappointing start for Dhruv in filmmaking, which led him to focus on becoming a music producer in the Bollywood film industry. With some struggle, he did get some work but only as an audio engineer but not as a music producer. A year went by before he realized that nepotism is a reality in Bollywood. Failing to become a music producer, Dhruv decided to try his hand at film making again.
In 2014, Dhruv made ‘Daily Rape’ along with Aartii Nagpal, which was based on true events. The film focused on ‘marital rape’ as a social issue. That film went on to win three well-known awards and attracted rave review at multiple film festivals.
The success of ‘Daily Rape’ got Dhruv’s entrepreneur instincts charged up. In 2015, he invested in a production company and was about to announce his feature films trilogy titled ‘The Mad House project’ based on the story of roommates with big dreams that end up in a mess. But soon enough, he had to leave the company and unfortunately drop the project in its initial stages.
As luck would have it, in the summer of 2015, Dhruv had to leave Mumbai. His mother’s deteriorating health forced him to go back to Delhi abandon his unaccomplished dreams in tinsel town. Not only his mother’s declining health but also their ailing family business needed immediate attention from Dhruv.
Back in Delhi, Dhruv took over as the head of marketing and operations for Akshars, their family business, which he now expanded and added digital marketing as a service offering along with production. His passion and skills in filmmaking came in handy as Akshars started producing corporate films for its clients.
After devoting three years to bring back his family business on track, Dhruv could finally see the company's losses recover and his mother's health get better. He was planning to return to Mumbai and restart the production company and kick-off the Madhouse project all over again. Unfortunately, just as he was planning to fly to Mumbai in March 2019, his mother had a massive heart attack and passed away.
“Mom’s sudden death devastated me,” says Dhruv, now orphaned, with no sibling or parent to cry to. “I had a mental and emotional setback after the death of my mother as she was the reason I left Mumbai and returned to Delhi.” He battled depression. “It was the worst episode of depression ever for me. I couldn't work or concentrate on anything.” A year later, while he was still recovering from the grief, the world was badly hit by the pandemic.
Unable to accord adequate attention to Akshars for an entire year, Dhruv willy-nilly let his company go into losses again. You can’t blame this guy! Not only was Dhruv grief stricken but with Covid, there were no clients to serve or business to conduct. Losses mounted and took a heavy toll on his financial position as he continued to retain his employees through the crisis. But he somehow managed to repay all his debts and worked hard to break even – even in life.
Dhruv bounced back from depression with a few motivational videos on YouTube recounting his journey through this difficult phase with the intent of helping others, who may find themselves in similar situations. After the distressing second wave of Covid in India, Dhruv decided to keep Akshars aside – not to focus on expanding the company as planned – and follow his passion of film making and music, his first love.
In 2022, Dhruv announced that he will be floating two new companies, which he refers to as the
‘Sutra Twins’ – FilmSutra for movies and Raag Sutra for music. In addition, he is using his digital marketing skills to run an influencer marketing company called Purple Monkey along with a friend.
While the official launch of the Sutra Twins is scheduled for later this year, Dhruv has already finished producing two short films under the Film Sutra banner and is now actively signing up artists for Raag Sutra – his music venture. If you’re interested in being part of the Sutra Twins, feel free to connect with Dhruv on Instagram. [950 words]
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