India's Hemang Prajapati Lives Out his Hollywood Dream

Hemang Prajapati was just a kid when he developed a love for movies. Today, the native of India has brought his skills to Hollywood and is the sound editor on the upcoming film “The Shadow Within,” starring Lindsay Lohan.

“I am very excited to be a part of such an amazing new motion picture,” Prajapati said. “With so many talented people behind and in front of the camera, this movie will give viewers a great thrill ride into an exciting world of werewolves and the supernatural.”

Written by Mike Morgan and directed by Tiago Mesquita, “The Shadow Within” tells the story of a private investigator (Charlotte Beckett) who must unravel the murder of her uncle while keeping the secret that she is a descendant from a line of werewolves. The film is set for release this fall.

The film’s cast includes Beckett (“Penny Dreadful”), Gianni Capaldi (“Ambushed”), Reynald Biales (“Le Monde de Fred”) and newcomer Dominik Madani who makes his feature film debut.

As sound editor, Prajapati developed the movie’s sound effects and background sounds on the film by creating a proverbial sound scape or mood for the film to accentuate the action and dramatic sequences.

“It had lots of scenes shot in exteriors so I had to record the sounds of traffic, rain, wind, park noise, fountains, police sirens and helicopters,” he said. “There were lots of drone shots, so to make it sound much more organic we went to Runyon Canyon and the Hollywood Hills and different tall buildings to record city skyline sounds.”

Prajapati comes to the film from the crime drama “Hangman,” starring Al Pacino and directed by Johnny Martin (“Delirium”), where he synced and edited sounds for the fast-moving action and high-end graphics.

It was just a few years ago that Prajapati was a young college student in his native India at SAL Institute of Technology & Engineering Research where he majored in Electronics & Communication. Having grown up a film buff, the young student was fascinated by the technical side of Hollywood and hoped his studies would take him to the world of film that he loved.

“I realized that to become the best I could be I would have to come to Los Angeles – the heart of the music and film industry,” he said. “My plans were simple. To try to learn as much as possible, and being a humble person, I wasn’t going to stop until I got an Academy Award,” he quipped.

Prajapati would go on to work on multiple feature films, commercials, short films as well doing Surround Sound mixing for such performers as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Heart, Great White, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Cindy Lauper, Bonnie Raitt and others.

Among his film work are the upcoming films “Maximum Impact,” “Boogeyman Pop,” and “Mermaid Down.”

“These experiences taught me that attention details are more important and that small details in work makes difference,” he said. “To match the industry standards. it takes time and man power. just one person can't finish full length feature film. team work takes you ahead.”