Ashay Javadekar

Start with structure.

I always start with some structure for any creation of mine. I would like to know where I am headed, and then carve the path to the destination. The destination might not remain the same where it was when I started the journey, but I would never start without some destination in mind. I have written an essay on telling stories, where I talk about this vividly.

Here is the structure I started with for one of the learning product channels I created recently.

Here is another one I had created for a short film I made a few years ago.

Implement consistency for repeatable quality.

After you make a structure for creating an iteration of the product, it is important to scale up the process to make several iterations with repeatable quality. For example, for creating my podcasts, I created an intro and outro for each episode and created a process to join them to my podcast episodes, to churn out episodes as quickly as possible with the same quality.

Introduce innovation for progress.

After we have a scaled-up process to produce products with consistent quality, it is important to make continuously better versions of the product. Introducing an intentional change, i.e. innovation is critical for progress. For example, in the learning product structure mentioned above, there are some steps that could be followed with the use of a template, rather than creating them from scratch at every single instance.

Accelerate innovation with self-sufficiency.

Removing dependency on tools used in the process structure would accelerate the innovation and create better version of the products much faster that before. For example, the templates used in the learning product structure were created using an email application and stored in a folder. However, I wrote a python code to quickly create custom emails based on user inputs, and accelerated following the process several fold. It completely avoided clicking on email templates and manually changing them.

CREATIVE ENDEAVORS

I follow my passion for storytelling through various channels. I make films, I host podcasts, and I regularly write essays. Visit my website for more.

Films

I have made two theatrically released feature films, several short films and commercials. I have had the honor of representing my films at several international films festivals, including Cannes Film Festival (France). Visit my films page to know more about my films.

My recent feature film DNA won several accolades including Best Film, Best Director, Acting awards and Best Cinematography in the US and Europe. Fun fact: I had made a storyboard with around 1500 hand-drawn sketches for this film. The challenge was to build a team that could see my vision and make this storyboard into a feature film. You can see the storyboard here. More about the film here.

Before DNA, I made a feature film called SHANK’S. It is a gourmet film based on a relatively unknown Marathi cuisine from India. It was a finalist for Best Film at the prestigious Bergamo Food Film Festival in Italy. More about it here.

My favorite short film that I have made is KEVIN. I presented it at several international film festivals, and it also won Best Short Film award at Philadelphia International Film Festival. It’s a horror short film of 4 minutes. You can watch it here.

Podcasts

In addition to making films, I am an avid podcaster. I host podcasts on several topics that I am interested in, and would love to know feedback. All my podcasts are available on YouTube.

Data Science

I host a podcast called “intuitions behind data science”, where I talk about only intuitions behind concepts of data science, no math, no equations. For making these episodes, I challenge myself often to explain the complex data science concepts in a simple fashion with a lot of examples and analogies.

Creative Tools

I host a podcast called “Creative Tools”, where I talk with various creators on the tools and technology they use to be creative.

Analogies between filmmaking and engineering

I host a Marathi (my native language) podcast called “CineGappa” where I talk about the analogies I have seen between filmmaking and engineering. It is certainly interesting to think about engineering as an art (which it most certainly is) and how a seemingly organic craft of filmmaking can be analogous to an objective craft of engineering.

How we made DNA?

An immensely interesting podcast about how we made DNA, the world’s first Marathi feature film completely made outside India. You will hear about the immense passion everyone had to make the film a reality, and also some interesting facts about how we used engineering principles to make an award winning feature film.

ESSAYS

I regularly write about my passion for merging my engineering background with my creative endeavors. Here are some of the essays I have written. Here is the link for the comprehensive catalog.

EDUCATION

PhD Chemical Engineering

Conventional ways of making electricity are outdated and highly inefficient. During my PhD, I used to make electricity from solid carbon waste such as woodchips, charred sugar, with high efficiency. The techniques that I learned while writing technical papers and creating presentations during this time have helped shape my thinking towards strategic problem solving, business process design, and also for writing screenplays for my films.

Here is my PhD thesis.

Some of the technical papers I wrote during my PhD.

1. Using metal alloys as anodes

2. Energy storage using molten Antimony

3. Using solid carbon directly in a fuel cell

I had a lot of fun and learnt a lot about presenting complex ideas while making a presentation for my PhD defense. I could put ideas like "one idea-one slide", "less text-more pictures", "consistency of fonts", "change grabs attention" to use, and these learnings still drive my thinking for presenting complex ideas to a wide audience.

MS Chemical Engineering

For my Masters in Engineering, I worked on a project to manufacture a polymer with a highly efficient catalytic reaction. It was heavy mechanical hands-on work, and I used to spend hours and hours in machine shop learning and creating mechanical assemblies for my experiments. The techniques that I have learned during this time have helped me towards my approach to hardware and utility design and creating standard operating procedures. Here is my Master's thesis.