Freshman Rayan Gore starred as Shouvik, the best friend of the protagonist Ajay(Sohil Shah), in the short feature film “PALY”, by aspiring filmmaker Nikhil Ganesh. The 20 minute film serves as the concept for Nikhil’s feature film “Ajay not AJ”. With a limited crew and small amount of money, “PALY” has been accepted into multiple national film festivals including La Shorts, Indie Fest, and Aesthetica Short Film Festival.

“PALY” is the story of an aspiring Indian American rapper from the Palo Alto suburbs, who dreams of making it big in the world. This dream faces opposition from his parents, and when he has the opportunity to record his first track, lacks the money. AJ has to make a difficult decision if he wants to pursue his dreams.

Casting began in the summer of 2019, with the crew being limited to a small group of professionals, and close connections. “My uncle played basketball with the director’s dad”,explained Rayan on how he got cast.”My uncle was like, Oh, that’s great, I have a nephew who likes to act”.

Filming began in September of 2019, with the cast and crew ready after months of preparation. With only four days of production, everyone put in the work to make the film the best they could. 

“I didn’t realize that it would be like this special, but it was awesome”, said Sohil.”It was just so dope because now every time I watch a movie I’m like, Hmm, maybe that’s the way they talk to each other behind the scenes”, 

“PALY” was ready to be released in January of 2020, and was sent to many national film festivals before it’s actual release for everyone else to view. 

A major part of why this film is unique, is the actual casting of Indian Americans, who are rarely seen in film today. Even if it’s a short 20 minute film, it still has more Indian American representation than most big blockbusters, or hit movies that we see today compared to what is currently on.

“It’s a different movie and it’s something that a lot of like kids grew up thinking about. So I really haven’t seen any other movie, or any other short film like this, I think this is really special”, Shah said.

“It sure represents Nikhil(director) and his friends that he grew up with, and I was like proud to play a role that represented him.”

“PALY” is a film that is unique in that, It shows the life and dreams of an indian-american, especially in a place like the Bay Area. “PALY” is now available on the film site Loveland, free to watch.