As told to Mario Pinti
Vimal Reddy, an accountant by day, writes, directs and produces films in his spare time for the Fijian Indian community in Australia and beyond.
I was born in Fiji, growing up in different towns, moving with my father wherever his government job took us. Fiji is a small country surrounded by the sea. Growing up involved lots of swimming and fishing with family and friends which I loved quite a lot.
One of the things that was missing from my childhood was the opportunity to pursue anything creative because these opportunities were much less possible in Fiji. At school you just chose the main subjects for a profession. For instance, nobody would be thinking of becoming a movie maker because there was no industry, no studios or infrastructure to support you. My father was very supportive of my creative side but he also wanted me to make a good living. So, I ended up studying accountancy.
I first came to Melbourne in my early 20s to do accountancy at Swinburne. I wanted to do film and television but couldn’t get a place in their program. But I used to go and peek at the film students, to watch them work, sometimes for hours. I found it quite interesting to keep an eye on these guys. After finishing my degree I went back to Fiji and worked for six years as an accountant. But I had fallen in love with Melbourne and came back in the late 1980s with my family.
My passion for film started when I was about six years old. I saw mostly Bollywood movies but also Hollywood movies. And it was fascinating. Rather than just sitting there and watching it for entertainment I was thinking, how does this get made? I used to always look in the shops at slide projectors and all these things. When I was 21, and the video camera was out, I went and bought one thinking I could use it to make movies. But it was very difficult to make movies with a VHS camera. However, my passion for films was so strong that I kept working at it. With the digital camera age my dreams became a bit more real.
The type of movies I like to make are Fiji Indian family dramas with stories that are relatable. Nobody was making these movies when I started. My first feature movie was in 2007. I’ve now made four. I shoot them here in the western suburbs, in remote locations, in studios, in friends’ houses, wherever. But things have changed, other Fijian Indians are now having a go at making films after seeing mine. I’m happy to give help and advice.
There is a little bit of tension between my job as an accountant and my passion to make movies. Both are very demanding. When I made my latest movie in 2024, I took a break from accountancy to dedicate a whole year to making the movie. It was a bit too much for me to handle both jobs.
