“I make films to make the world a better place, tell stories of the unheard and make cinema that everyone enjoys and learns from,” International Filmmaker and Actor, Jayesh Jaidka, over the last few years has achieved accolades, many only dream of achieving. With a total of 16 awards and 6 nominations at the top tier International film festivals, Jaidka has been hailing through the indie circuit and moving leaps and bounds towards his dreams becoming reality.
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Jayesh Jaidka
An Indian resident, now living in Manhattan, New York, Jaidka is a Masters’ graduate in film from Boston University. He made the transition from New Delhi to Boston in 2018 to take his understanding of cinema to the next level and more importantly, to execute the long-awaited idea of a TV show from pen and paper to screen. Highbread, a comedic series, is a show about the first of its kind bakery in the city of Boston that is run by an Indian student, Jai, his pothead roommate, Dennis and a rundown bakery owner, Zoe. The show not only sheds light on the struggles of people of color, brings diverse cultures together but also deals with the long-lasting effects of marijuana. The core idea of the show is to break many kinds of stereotypes that people still face in the 21st century. With over 23 film festival screenings and 16 awards, including a Telly Award, Jaidka has had the amazing opportunity of pitching his TV show to the likes of some of the biggest production houses and networks in the United States, namely AMC Networks, Warner Bros. Television, Sundance and many more.
Jayesh’s journey started at a tender age of 8 when he started theater acting and followed his passion of acting till the age of 18 after which he delved into filmmaking, with his first short film, Deja V. Soon after, Jayesh went on to make films on issues he wanted to shed light on and gained high praise for his film, Mussoorie Breeze, for which he won the Best Debutant Director at the Delhi International Film Festival 2017. Jaidka’s next film, The Whale, based on the Blue Whale Challenge, got screened at the UK Asian Film Festival and was screened at the Regent Street Cinema, a theatre hailed as the “the birthplace of British cinema“. His film, Cheesh – a comedic thriller on water conservation, was sold to shorts.tv, soon after which he went for his masters and made the pilot episode of the TV show, Highbread, which bestowed him with extreme International presence and landed him the script of A Haunted Ego, The pilot episode of a psycho-thriller anthology series. The pilot episode is currently in post-production and is expected to make its festival run in 2021.
Talking about the Indian film industry, Jayesh finds that the industry has evolved a lot over the years and there is greater awareness among the audience. Jayesh believes that Bollywood is a beautiful mix of the commercial box office hit films alongside some great indie cinema that raises awareness on important issues. Off-late, the audience has grown onto enjoying both, indie as well as the commercial hits, which has inspired filmmakers and actors to make cinema that brings out a powerful message in commercial films, thereby reducing the gap between the typical commercial popcorn flicks and indie cinema.
When asked about his plans for Bollywood, he says India is his home and he has some offers which he has put on hold as of now because, at the moment, he is focused on working on the two shows he is making in the United States and intends to find them a home soon, after which he wants to move to making his first feature film, a serio-comedy based in the New York City, a script he has been working on since July, 2020. Jayesh also mentioned how his love for acting hasn’t died and that if any opportunity arises in future, he would be willing to explore it but not in the recent future as he wishes to devote all his time and energy to making films on compelling stories that can help to make the world a better place.
A 24-year-old Indian filmmaker that not only made it big behind the camera with some great TV show pilots, short films, advertisements, music videos and documentaries but also has ample amount of experience in-front of camera, Jayesh dreams of directing and acting in a film for which he wins an Oscar, just like the Veteran actor and director, Ben Affleck for the film, Argo. Here’s to taking Indian storytelling to a global stage, Jayesh is a born star, making the world his own one film at a time.
For more details, please visit: www.jayeshjaidka.net.
www.linkedin.com/in/jayeshjaidka, www.imdb.com/name/nm9497929.
