Meet Amisha Kakkar

We recently connected with Amisha Kakkar and have shared our conversation below.

Amisha , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Resilience. The capacity to withstand or recover quickly from difficulties. I’m not sure “quickly” is the right word for me, but I do believe I eventually got my feet back on the ground. I was never good in school. I was never the typical Indian-American girl taking IB courses with straight A’s. I wasn’t in any AP courses either.
Cut to: college applications. I got rejected by every university in Colorado that would make any parent proud. However, I was accepted to Metropolitan State University of Denver. After finishing my freshman year, I realized I didn’t want to pursue journalism anymore and decided to focus on a more creative career. So, I dropped out and applied to The Art Institute of Colorado. A week before I was about to start, the school shut down. I didn’t know what to do for a while.
Then I applied to The Art Institute of California—North Hollywood campus to pursue filmmaking. I got in, which forced me to leave the place I had known my entire life and move to the unknown.
When I was moving to California, I had roommates and an apartment lined up just in time before school started, but a few days before my flight, my apartment fell through for a number of reasons. I had to stay in a hotel for about two weeks while attending school. After three months, the school shut down without warning, and that too—on my birthday!
A month later, in April 2019, I found The Los Angeles Film School. LAFS was honestly a blessing in disguise because it had more resources and soundstages. Then COVID-19 hit, and like everything else, the school paused all in-person classes and went online. I went back to Colorado in March 2020 for a year and a half, then returned to California in October 2021. I finally graduated from film school in August 2022.
I thought after graduation I would get jobs in the film industry nonstop, but that was not the case. I applied, and still do, to multiple jobs every day. I kept track of them on my Notes app. I went through a lot of rejection and ended up doing unpaid crew jobs and internships. I got my first paid job in the film industry in July 2024.
So, where do I get resilience from? I think it’s just about keeping forward momentum. I know that sounds cliché, but it’s the honest truth. Even when things don’t go as planned, I keep pushing ahead. So as long as you stay in course and believe in yourself. Then, my friends, you’ll be just fine.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Hello, my name is Amisha Kakkar, and I’m an Indian-American. I immigrated to the United States with my parents when I was two years old, in September 2001—maybe eight or eleven days before 9/11, which feels crazy to think about. We moved to Colorado, where we’ve lived ever since, and I became a U.S. citizen just before high school.
I never thought I would choose filmmaking as a career, and that’s because, for one, I wasn’t one of those kids who picked up a camera at age six or eight like many others. And two, growing up in a brown household and as an immigrant, it wasn’t—how do I say it?—it wasn’t really natural for us to think that way. Like many immigrant parents, mine wanted me to pursue typical, high-paying careers—doctor, lawyer, or engineer.
Now, I can proudly say I’m a director and writer. Although, I do consider myself more of a writer than anything else, but I also help out in other roles, like script supervising. I got tired of waiting for someone to give me a chance, so I decided that in 2024, I would start a YouTube channel to document my journey of writing both a novel and a screenplay that I hope to film in 2025. So, please check out my channel—it’s under my full name, so it’s easy to find. I’ve also started TikTok and Lemon8 for travel and food content, which I also upload to Instagram.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I know this has been said a lot, but one quality that everyone must have is the ability to believe in yourself. It really makes a huge impact. Even when I was in film school, I would tell myself that I couldn’t do the assignments and would constantly belittle myself. This might be a bit controversial, but to me, it doesn’t matter if the people you’re surrounded by believe in you or not, because if you don’t have the right mindset about yourself, then it’s simply game over.

In the film industry, connections matter so another quality that’s a must the ability to network. I’m an introvert so this part for me is a struggle but I do the best as I can.

For writers, write every day to hone your craft. Simple as that.

And for everyone: don’t wait to chase your dreams or anyone to give you that chance, just use what you have for now, and hopefully that would lead you to opportunities.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

If you feel stuck, whether you’re in a creative career or not, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is the book that can help you get unstuck. One of the key lessons the book teaches is how to take care of your inner child. It encourages you to take solo dates, which help you step away from the stress of life and just live a little. Each chapter represents a week, with assignments that prompt you to reflect deeply on yourself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @amisha_kakkar1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@amishakakkar9332
• Other: TikTok: @akakkar2