Jay Parikh

Award winning Director of the film _The Sentinel (I)_ Jay Parikh was born and raised in the western state of Gujarat in India on July 9, 1990 to traditional Indian parents. Like many other Indian students of his age, he took up an undergraduate program in IT engineering at the age of 18, only to realize later that his passion resides in film making and not engineering. Shortly after moving to United States in the fall of 2012, Jay took up a crash course at New York Film Academy in New York to hone his film making skills. While pursuing this course, he had already started some proactive work by making films like "A Sip of Love" among many others. With over a five year long experience in the art of film making, Jay has won several accolades and awards for his work. His most recent project The Sentinel won the Most Outstanding short film in Hollywood International Film Festival 2015 and the Best Short Film in Los Angeles Urban Film Festival 2015. The idea of the film The Sentinel came after he read about the gang-rape that took place on December 16, 2012 in the Indian capital city of Delhi and the public outrage for justice that followed across India. With this film, he tries to strike a cord with a lot of parents universally. As a director, one is not just entitled to giving life to his ideas and the story, but also giving creative liberty to his actors and bringing out the best in them. And, Jay clearly aces in it. From being a young film maker from India, Jay has come a long way by overcoming language and cultural barriers and creating a niche in American film arena. Apart from film making, Jay has also acted in several projects in India. In his free time Jay loves to sketch portraits of people and objects in general. His goal is to create movies which not just touch people's heart, but bring alive all the five senses. To him, "Making films is like drinking wine.. more I make more I go Crazy!"