A JOONDANNA teenager has become a globetrotting filmmaker following the release of his second short film.
Radheya Jegatheva (18) is travelling to Japan at the end of the month as a finalist at the International Students Creative Awards for his film iRony.
It is one of many film festivals Radheya has attended in the past couple of months and his film has picked up more than 20 awards at festivals in the US, Europe and Australia.
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READ NOWThe former Perth Modern School student based the short film on an award-winning poem he wrote in 2015.
It followed his first film Journey, which has won more than 70 awards.
“I’ve always loved writing stories and poems, so I was really glad I was able to make this into a short film,” he said.
Radheya said iRony was topical and focused on the “questionable elements of social media.”
Despite having travelled to countries including the US, Turkey, Prague and Taiwan for his films, he only became interested in film making a few years ago and taught himself animation at home.
“I was really drawn to the visual effects side at first, the magic that goes on behind the screen,” he said.
“I never thought I’d be making films.”
He is studying a commerce degree at university but hopes to study film as well and is considering it as a career.
Radheya’s thoughts have already turned to his next project, a live action film, and his advice for other aspiring filmmakers was to “keep working at it”.
“Films take a while to make and can be very time consuming and there’s lots of hard work involved,” he said.
“Keep at it and keep trying and get something you are happy with.”
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