Anand Venkitachalam
New Delhi, Feb 14 (.) Independent storytelling often allows one to revisit themes, with a unique approach, flair, and entirely different perspective, resulting in something very new, and fresh, as seen in debut filmmaker Sriram Emani’s riveting and unsettling short ‘Jam Boy’.
Set to make its festival debut with a world premiere in the competition section of the DC Independent Film Festival 2026 in Washington, DC on February 15, the short – which he also wrote, in addition to directing – is inspired by Emani’s own experiences as an Indian living in the US.
The film offers an unflinchingly blunt, and rather straightforward yet dramatically different, and creative new look at the difficulties faced by immigrants in pursuit of the so-called American Dream, and the subsequent disillusionment faced by them in chase of this one idea.
It stars Emani in the titular role, besides Manga Emani, Kris Sidberry, Zeus Taylor, Celeste Oliva, and Shahjehan Khan among others. Emani’s diverse repertoire also boasts several accomplishments in the areas of acting and entrepreneurship.
‘Jam Boy’ could very well be looked on as the culmination of his experiences from his past works, such as his acting credits which include appearances in the shows ‘Matlock’ and ‘Chosen Family’, in which he appeared alongside Kathy Bates and Heather Graham, respectively.
In an interview to the United News of India, Emani, said the subject which drew him to making ‘Jam Boy’ was not so much “an obvious external conflict,” as it was something more discreet and silent.
“I had built a stable, successful life abroad, and on the surface everything looked fine,” he said. “But I slowly began to notice how much of myself I was editing without anyone explicitly asking me to. That realisation felt more unsettling than any overt discrimination.”
Further elaborating with a very interesting take on a difficult subject, racism; Emani remarked that it is not often “as something loud and visible,” as we make it to be, adding that the dichotomy and many layers of this rather hidden version of racism, with its hidden-from-sight aspects was what he was interested in covering, and the paradox of slowly becoming the very mask you were wearing to fit in to a foreign society.
“I was more interested in the invisible version, the internal negotiation where you pre-emptively soften your voice, adjust your habits, and make yourself easier to digest. You tell yourself it is professionalism or adaptability, but over time you start to wonder what parts of you quietly disappeared.”
Highlighting an example from his past experience of just having his own name written with completely new style, such as “Sula” on his coffee cup inside one of New York’s many coffee shops, he said it made him wonder on how a mere “two-syllable name that is completely ordinary where I come from suddenly became so unfamiliar and difficult.”
He added “Friends suggested I use a shorter, more American nickname. I could not bring myself to do it. It felt like giving up something that was not just mine, but shared by many others like me.”
“That question opened the floodgates. I began noticing other habits I had adopted without thinking,” and how he instinctively began changing all the “desi” mannerisms he had, despite without anyone telling him to.
“No one had ordered me to do these things. I had simply absorbed the idea that blending in was safer,” adding that his previous workplace experience only further “reinforced this mindset in subtle ways.”
Upon introspection, the curiosity of “how much of this pressure is imposed from the outside, and how much do we participate in it ourselves,” was a key factor to ‘Jam Boy’; the exploration of the many facets of what he called the “model minority myth”, thriving inside a “grey area” that “rewards compliance, silence, and endless productivity.”
He further noted that as strangers in a strange land, we can unwittingly “help sustain it because we are afraid of losing what we have gained.”“ ‘Jam Boy’ came years after those realisations. By then I had started slowly unlearning those patterns.
The film became a way to explore that inner journey, the moment when someone who has done everything right begins to ask whether the life they built still belongs to them.”
When asked for the reasons behind his choice of setting, Emani said, “I chose a dystopian setting because the core conflict in Jam Boy is psychological, not physical. It is about the model minority experience, where success comes with quiet, constant self-editing.”
Noting it to be more than just a mere “plot device” but rather reflective of a “conditional beginning”, he noted the dystopian theme as being a crucial element for character development, which allow for the smooth exploration of various aspects, otherwise more difficult in a contemporary setting.
“From the outside, the character’s life looks stable and enviable. Internally, he is negotiating how much of himself he can afford to keep. That kind of inner erosion is very hard to show in a purely realistic world. The dystopian framework allows those invisible pressures to become visible, cinematic, and tangible,” he remarked.
Elaborating on the use of setting, he added, “The character is allowed to stay as long as he performs, complies, and remains useful. That idea is not science fiction. Around the world today, there are labour systems where passports are physically confiscated until work is completed.
“In other systems, the control is softer but just as powerful. Permission is not taken away through force but through performance pressure and the fear of losing what feels like a promised perfect life,” he continued.
He further remarked “Dystopia let me place those realities on a single emotional spectrum and dramatise them through one character’s experience.“
“From a filmmaking perspective, dystopia also becomes a storytelling tool. It gives visual form to abstract emotions. Performance scores, permissions, and structured environments become metaphors for internal states like anxiety, compliance, and self-surveillance.”
Noting that dystopia allows for the underscoring for the core feeling of entrapment and suffocation, he said that the “production design, sound, and framing can carry psychological meaning without dialogue.That is incredibly valuable when the story is about internal conflict rather than external action”.
Additionally, he called it a tool which allows for the creation of greater distance between audiences and characters, allowing for better engagement, as viewers can identify “the patterns without feeling that a specific country or policy is being attacked. The conversation shifts from politics to human cost, from ideology to identity.
“Ultimately, dystopia gave me the language to tell a deeply human story in a cinematic way. ‘Jam Boy’ is about a man who has done everything right and slowly realizes he feels less free, not more. The near-future setting allowed that emotional contradiction to be expressed through the world itself, not just the performance.”
“Without the dystopian elements, his struggle might feel internal and abstract. With them, it becomes something the audience can see, feel, and question,” he remarked.
Concluding his remarks on ‘Jam Boy, and elaborating on future projects, he called his feature “the first chapter in a slate of authored storytelling,” adding that he was further “interested in building a body of work that explores identity, memory, and power through unexpected genres, often from a South Asian point of view but with global emotional stakes.”
Describing his ambition for future works, he noted ‘Jam Boy’ to be the first chapter to something more, making him not tied so much to the limitations of simply placing his story in any one genre, but rather explore many styles with his feature, which he noted was one which underscored great potential, and one where he could continue to subvert both audience as well his own expectations.
“Right now, my main focus is expanding Jam Boy into a feature or limited series. That world still has so much room to breathe. I love placing deeply human moments inside high-concept frameworks. In ‘Jam Boy’, that meant putting a playful Telugu spice rap and even a dreamlike dance sequence inside a psychological dystopian thriller. Those tonal shifts are not detours, they are the point. Life does not move in one genre, so why should films?
“That instinct carries into the rest of my slate. I am developing projects that range from physical comedy to slowburn relationship dramas and historical fiction. What connects them is not genre but emotional contrast. I am drawn to stories where humour sits next to discomfort, where tenderness interrupts tension, and where the audience is allowed to feel multiple things at once. I think some of the most powerful cinema today comes from that kind of tonal courage.”
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