The film industry in Durban is not short of talent. This certainly holds true in the case of Dayakar Padayachee, a rather young writer, director and independent producer, who has more than proved himself a force worth reckoning with.
Twenty-six-year-old Padayachee from Isipingo (now living in Musgrave) is known for his award-winning film productions, being the master-mind behind Glances which won the Best Audience Choice Award in 2014 for the 48 Hour Film Project. He worked again on a horror film called Artwork for the 48 hour film project 2015 and plans to continue in the horror genre with his new project, Hadez. He also worked on a proof of concept short for a new series called ‘The Cobra’ which aims to be the first South African Superhero show.
Dayakar, studied under acclaimed cartoonist Nanda Sooben for three years at the Centre for Fine Art Animation and Design and fourth year in Film. He is flamboyant, keeps to his circle of friends and is open to trying new and different things and meeting many different people.
He also does film review video blogs for an online company called FYI ONLINE owned by a Christopher Augustine. He has done media coverage for the Durban International film festival.
His company name behind his productions is called HGProductions. He is now working on two films consecutively, as a creative director with a new upcoming independent film maker, Ashan Singh, who plans to release later this year a local feature film, ‘Dear Jasmine’ and another indie short film, ‘Shadow,’ which he has been completed and aims to send to film festivals.
“I have lived in Durban for 26 years and think that Durban needs exposure it deserves, about time Durban gets a chance to shine,” said Dayakar.
‘Shadow’ is a new short drama that involves a cast of fresh talents, Tazme Pillay (Tyrone Sharma), Geaneviv Pillay (Liana Maharaj), and professional well-known actors, like Kajal Bagwandeen (Karen Sharma), Yateen Dayaram (Sanil Sharma), Lihle Dhlomo and Rizelle Januk who offer supporting roles. Others in the cast are Ismail Ganie (Rijay Maharaj), Joshua Milne (Travis), Jerome Naidu (The Neighbour) and Sanele Sibiya.
‘Shadow’ is also the first film of the miniseries anthology he is working on.
The film also includes the talents of Sanam Sitaram a new upcoming vocalist who wrote a song called Black Lake which will have a music video on Youtube soon, as well as her own track she produced ‘Paper Doll.’
