Prajdnik Awasthi

International student Prajdnik Awasthi has had a terrific start to his Master of Digital Arts.

 

The super-short film he created as his first semester project has been accepted by two film festivals, and he’s waiting to hear from others.

 

Things hadn’t always been so rosy for Prajdnik. He says that back in Nepal, he’d been a “lousy student” at first.

 

“When I was doing my Plus 2 - higher secondary - I was studying science and I failed my examinations,” he recalls. 

 

“After that, I took a break from everything. I decided to think about my course, my career.”

 

Prajdnik realised that his heart lay in film and animation. So he changed course – both literally and figuratively – into a Bachelor of Multimedia.

 

“Studying wasn't a burden for me anymore,” he says, smiling. 

 

“I was enjoying it – it was fun. It was more like exploring myself.”

 

For his Masters, Prajdnik was attracted to the ANU partly because of its rankings.

 

“In my country, the ANU is referred to as the number one university in Australia.”

 

But primarily, he adds, he chose to do the ANU Master of Digital Arts because of its course structure.

 

“It was everything that I ever wanted to study.”

 

“It's so flexible and it allows you to explore the spectrum of multimedia. It's really amazing.”

 

Prajdnik sees multimedia as a great platform for him to present his story ideas as well as his own story.

 

His super-short film, Faceless, was mainly based on his life.

 

“It's a story about a boy who goes to a foreign land to study,” Prajdnik says.

 

“The boy goes into the land, he sees people around him and they're all faceless.”

 

The film, which has been accepted by the US-based Fan Boy Film Festival and the Canberra Short Film Festival, was inspired by Shaun Tan’s acclaimed graphic novel The Arrival. 

 

For research, Prajdnik also watched a lot of cartoons and animation.

 

“I enjoy mostly 2D animation from Disney and lately I've been enjoying Laika Studio.”

 

It’s still early days, but Prajdnik hopes to eventually take the skills and knowledge he acquires at the ANU back to his home country. He brushed off the idea of trying his hand in Hollywood.

 

“For now I want to focus on my country,” he says. 

 

“The media in my country is still... in the first phase. So I want to go there and give something new to the audience.”