Abhijet Raajput: Small Town Guy Living His Big Dream of Video Direction

On the sparkling highways of Music Video Direction & Fashion Photography, from the humble beginnings of those narrow streets of the small town of Aligarh (UP).

It is a dream that he would like to live every lifetime, says Abhijet Raajput, formally known as Raajput in the media industry.

Painting the story with the passing years of his life that can inspire many from small towns of India, who dream of making it big in Media and Fashion industry, yes where you come from doesn’t matter! What matters is your never say die attitude to achieve your ambitions, says Abhijet Raajput, giving us a brief narrative of his journey from Aligarh to Pune’s world of music videos and fashion photography. He is now all geared up for his next big leap - International music videos lined up for a release to test waters on the global music video circuit.

He says, more than dreaming, what it takes is to keep staring into the eyes of everyday obstacles and growing above it in a way that dealing with the challenges becomes a fun lifestyle.

It all started in the year 2008 with inquisition about the Punjabi music videos which he used to watch sitting at his house in ‘Sasni Gate’, a small locality in Aligarh. Seeds of the dream to be someone shooting similar videos someday were perhaps sowed right there. There was something enthralling about the amalgamation of visuals with music, singing & performance of an artist telling a story, he shares.

He says, after realizing what you want to do, the bigger task is to take the next step of moving to the place where you can be around experts and learn the art. For him it was Pune. It wasn’t easy to make a move as there were a lot of insecurities attached with pursuing a career coupled with the family pressure, not believing that a career in such fields can make a good living & life.

He says that the kick start happened when his dad, a defense army personnel, was transferred to Pune. He then knew, that was his start point, Pune being close to Mumbai, ‘The City of Dreams & The Capital of Entertainment’.

He said, with the interest in making videos brimming under his belly, he started connecting with people from FTII - Film & Television Institute of India. This further fascinated him about making videos, with his newly developed relations and his passion to learn film making, in 2009, he got his opportunity and started assisting FTII directors. This helped him experience the live shoot sets to learn and acquire the technical know-how of the process of film making. Working under experts helped him to a great extent, he says.

Pune in those days was coming up in a big way in fashion photography as a market, so he decided to give it a shot. He carried his work of fashion folios and went to the known fashion photographers of the city for work, but was refused as they believed his skills were not up to the mark.

As they say, sometimes setbacks direct you to the path you are destined be on! the same happened to him, when he, after those rejections decided to start shooting fashion folio as a freelancer. This marked the turning point which he refers to as the ‘Rise of The Phoenix” in the frame of his life.

He says, fashion photography which he undertook to get out of the low phase of his life turned into his profession as people started noticing and appreciating his work. One year of fashion folio shoots and the city of Pune was introduced to the success of Raajput, as he is known by all in Pune.

He says, his claim to fame in Pune was a calendar shoot in 2014 with some top international models of that time, from agencies like Toabh, Inega etc. That calendar shoot was noticed and taken well by Pune’s media corporate and it led to more such shoots followed by magazine editorials, designer collection shoots with international top models and known brands.