First of all our readers would like to know about the start of your professional career?
Hi, I am Sameeksha Katyal, I am a 24 year old Indian actor, writer & filmmaker. I have been involved as a writer, theatre director and actor in India and moved to the US in 2016 on a scholarship to study at Drexel University. I have been actively involved with the Chelsea Repertory Lab at the Acting Studio where I trained in Meisner Technique of Acting and have been a part of numerous off Broadway theatre festivals. In 2019, I wrote my first short film “U& Me” which I co-produced as the lead actor and also opened opportunities for fellow artists. The film was well received in film festivals, with 7 nominations, finalist award at the First Time Filmmaker Festival and the Best Film in Drama category at the BeBop Channel Content Festival. I am also a published model who has walked for numerous upcoming designers and has done a couple of NYFW campaigns. I am currently working on my first feature film under the guidance of the Director of the Playwriting Program at the Chelsea Rep Lab, and I am training in Voice, Speech and Accents under the Director of the Voice Program at the Acting Studio.
What was the inspiration behind your most recent project ‘The Interview from Hell’ ?
The inspiration was based on personal experiences. This idea struck us in the middle of the desperate times when I was suffering long hours at work and one of my friends, Michael Chabbler, who co-wrote this script was fired and was struggling to find a job. Michael is an upcoming playwright and he wanted to express his frustration with job hunting, the standard interview questions, and working alongside crazy people. I loved the idea and asked him to put a draft involving our experiences. Michael wanted to make fun of it and write dialogues that only he wishes he could say in interviews. We particularly got stuck on one mocking question the interviewers love to ask: “Where do you see yourself in five years?” We wonder how managers in a capitalist society expect job applicants to have Five Year Plans. It’s especially absurd because we work in a world where any of us could be fired or laid off at any moment, no matter how well we are performing in our jobs, the pandemic added a new direction to the film. Yet, hiring managers expect to hear how we are willing to commit our lives to the firm. Additionally, when you work someplace long enough, you might have gone through a process to get your position. But then they hire some guy who’s completely insane. You wonder — ‘did he have to go through the same process I did?’ And there you are doing this person’s work or fixing their work, plus still doing yours and trying to be reasonable with them.
Tell us more about the short film. It must be very difficult to shoot it during COVID-19?
Due to COVID everything was shut down, when I proposed the completion of this project everyone thought I had gone crazy. While my friends laughed it off, I was glad to have at least my team’s faith in me. We had a number of actors audition via zoom and skype but we did not find our Tom until we saw Michael explain the script to one of the actors. The look in his eyes as the character was so profound that we felt the script come alive.
We shot the script during COVID on a Saturday in a private office space owned by my family friends in New Jersey with 4 people in total as cast and crew. The editing and other processing of the film became impossible. We had to connect to our network of friends in editing, adding background music and spent dozens of hours finessing it to submit to film festivals. It took us 2.5 months from March to May to complete post production and the first week of June we started submitting it to the film festivals. The film title was workshopped tirelessly until I realized that a dialogue from Eve in the story best describes the film. The pandemic which then followed gave the title that interesting edge of how people are going through their own version of hell during these hard times, hence, ‘The Interview from Hell’.
The film got an extremely good response, nominations and awards, you must be very happy with the kind of response it has received?
We love the responses we are receiving. We experienced a great response when we read the script at different playwriting events. It seems people are feeling the fun-weirdness of our story. What amazed us was that “The Interview from Hell” was the most-watched film for 3 straight weeks at Direct Monthly Online Film Festival and was voted the winner of the Best Audience Choice Award, Public Choice award & Best Short Film at different festivals. We are still nominated for awards at a dozen international film festivals. This is unexpected and exciting and I personally have so much gratitude for everyone who is taking the time out to watch and vote for our short film.
Tell us about your most memorable acting experiences to date ?
All my acting experiences have been unique and memorable but one that I will remember forever wasan off Broadway Festival. I performed as the lead Dorie in the play “Tell Dorie not to cry”, and on stage, I could feel the power of the performance with a change in energy of my audience, I could feel the complete silence and hear the sniffles of my audience. After the performance I had a number of people walk up to me to hug me and tell me they felt some memories re-lived during the performance. It warmed my heart to just think I connected with these people through my performance. It is my biggest pride as an actor. My acting teacher saw the play and he said, he had never seen me live as alive as he saw in the performance.
What is the most difficult problem you had to solve?
I believe making people believe my vision and bringing them on board for this short film was really hard. I like to use inspiration in the world around me to write and create films that my audience would find relevant to their life and captivating.
As a female, person of color, I have had to work multifolds harder to get recognition for the work than my peers in the industry. I believe it to be my mission to give a platform and take those challenging roles in the entertainment industry, and break the stereotypical type casting.
My brand is all about strong, independent women and their empowerment, and I have carried the same message throughout my acting roles and filmmaking endeavors.
I believe in leading by example and use my social media and other platforms as a guide to empower girls and young women who want to pursue a career in acting & filmmaking in Hollywood.
Sameeksha a better actor or filmmaker?
Sameeksha cannot be a good actor without being a good filmmaker. When I started acting, I understood the emotional life an actor needs to tell the story, but while being a director I understood that storytelling is incomplete without the person behind the camera also understanding the emotional life, and the best way to portray it under the given circumstance. Acting in TV& Film, Theatre is the most elaborate form of storytelling, each camera angle, look, emotion, prop, piece of clothing, language, accent comes together simultaneously to tell the story. So, being an actor and a filmmaker together helps me approach acting roles better and be a more understanding and connected filmmaker.
What would you be doing right now, if it wasn’t for your entertainment career?
Acting and Filmmaking is my life’s calling. There is no way I would not be doing it in one way or another. I believe I have the capacity to tell the most complex stories in a way the audience will appreciate. I could use my economics degree to work in entertainment finance, or in advertising or making documentaries for the UN.
What’s up next? Give us a sneak peak into your upcoming projects?
I am taking an advanced screenwriting course and writing a feature film. I am also volunteering my hours as a Women in Business mentor to my mentees in helping them grow their entrepreneurial skills.
I have offers from a lot of talented established artists in the industry to collaborate. As for “The Interview from Hell” we are getting a lot of interest from people in distributing our film to multiple platforms like Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Vudu but we are still competing in film festivals.
If anyone wants to stay in touch with you, what’s the best way?
The best way is to write to me through my website visit www.sameekshalav.com or and for details follow my Facebook page & Instagram at @sameeksha.lav
