IndianRaga founder Sriram Emani explores identity and belonging in Jam Boy
After building IndianRaga into a global platform for Indian performing arts, Sriram Emani is turning to filmmaking to tell nuanced South Asian stories that challenge familiar stereotypes.
Sriram Emani, the founder of IndianRaga, a platform for Indian performing arts, has released an album featuring his 74 misspelled Starbucks cups from various New York outlets. The experience of being misnamed, common among immigrants, inspired Emani to create Jam Boy, his first film as writer, director, and lead actor. Jam Boy, a 22-minute 22-second film, explores the struggle of a model immigrant who excels but fails to recognize the cost of choosing himself.
The film has already received accolades, including Best Film and Best Web Series awards at the DC Independent Film Festival. Emani, who founded IndianRaga in 2012 while studying at MIT, has grown it into a global performing arts organization. The platform offers online education in various Indian classical arts and provides a Raga Fellowship for selected artists to create professionally produced performances.
Emani's acting career took off with his role as the first South Asian Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol. Jam Boy, set in a near future where immigrant workers face indentured servitude, tells the story of an Indian coder who smuggles his mother's forbidden tamarind rice to work and confronts the consequences of his efforts to be chosen.
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