Taking a unique perspective on filmmaking, Rakesh Kumar has built a path like no other. Born a sick and frail infant to young couple in East India, Kumar escaped poverty and caste violence at age 11 through a government scholarship to a prestigious boarding school. Furthering his education made possible by his grandfather’s guidance, Kumar went on to further his academic career in America, first with a law degree, and then Master of Business Administration .
Filmmaking and entertainment were always Kumar’s first love, and he originally began his career in television with an opportunity to join the writing staff of “Vansh,” a TV drama produced by RK Films for India. It was the unfortunate loss of two family members to cancer that lead to him practicing law to support his family. Due to a personal aversion to life as a lawyer, Kumar switched gears again, earning his MBA from USC and working for Apple as Global Supply Manager. After a two-decade gap, he “quit his day job and jumped head first into filmmaking.
My life has been rife with challenges and misfortune, which created a passion to achieve the Happy Ever After that fairytales promise us all. I thought it was a finish line, a point in time you work to reach. But the lesson I want to share is that happily ever after is already there in each and every challenge life throws at you. says Kumar.
After completing his first feature film “After Ever After,” www.aeathemovie.com the film’s story centers on Nik Patel, a father and an internist, who struggles with the idea and false promise of Happy Ever After while his daughter lies dying of Leukemia, the same disease that claimed his wife experienced several years prior. It takes the intermittent memories of Patel’s patient, Donnie J, a long-forgotten Jazz legend suffering with Alzheimer’s to teach Nik that, while life is not a fairytale, we can all find our moments of everlasting joy.
“After Ever After” marks the industry debut of Kumar, from which he had written directed and starred in this drama film. Kumar’s ambition had transformed this particular film onto his life long quest to define the state of happiness. His script was based on his own journey, loss and struggle after losing multiple loved ones to cancer and Alzheimer’s in a condensed period of time.
The film stars Kumar, Jax Franks, Rakesh Kumar, Dik Martin, M Jennings, Heather Gilliland, Tony Mirrcandani, Kathryn Howell and Robert Ernst and features an original sound track by Jerome Leroy. Romanus Wolter served as the producer of the film.