sincerelydhruv
Dhruv Vyas - Filmmaker, Director
Bio
Dhruv Vyas is an emerging writer-director from India with a distinct voice in emotionally driven genre storytelling. His debut feature Deaf To Happiness—a feature film made entirely by one person without crew, funding, or formal training—reached over 8 million viewers organically across varying content and sparked strong engagement online.
With February 31st,his next feature film Dhruv wants to share the cruelty of irrational thoughts, grief and lack of closure. His work fuses high-concept surreal genre with deeply personal themes, drawing influence from Japanese horror games, David Lynch, and modern folklore. This project is part of a larger original I.P. he is building across film, television and games.
Showreel
Spotlight Project:
Deaf To Happiness: A feature film made entirely by one person, without a.i
Shot Deck Image - 1
Section 1: Overview
Deaf To Happiness is a surreal psychological feature I made alone. No cast, no crew, just a camera, laptop, mic and grit. It explores loneliness and the relationship between the creator and the creation, and ends with a choice, with consequences that echo beyond the film.
Trailer here.
How it was made (in brief):
The film was written, directed and produced with near-zero resources. I directed myself on camera, operated, recorded sound, made c.g.i using blender, composed the music, edited and finished the film. Without A.I or any external help. The film was produced with funds saved from my freelance video editing business and all the equipment was purchased, locations were scouted in Meghalaya, India, and extensive pre-planning was done ahead of production. The film went through all stages of pre-production, production, and post-production over the course of a year.
Why it matters:
This isn’t just a feature, it’s a proof that a single person can build a living, cinematic world and sustain audience attention without industrial scaffolding or a.i. This piece of media is part of an original i.p that will span across multiple standalone films, series, games, etc. All interconnected with threads that the audience will control.
Check out upcoming projects here.
Shot Deck Image - 2 (c.g.i location)
Shot Deck Image - 3 (real location)
Section 2: Making of
1) First came the story. ( January - February 2024)
I wrote a short story in my notebook. It was a collection of events that happened without any lore. I knew that I wanted to make a film about loneliness, creativity, and what it's like to chase happiness when you don't have any memory of who you are, but I didn't know where it would lead or how it would end.
2) Then the ingredients for making visuals. ( March - April 2024)
Self-financed through freelance editing. I had been travelling in Meghalaya around that time, and I was scouting locations passively while finishing up the story. Once I felt that the story was complete, at least the events that would take place in real locations, I used my savings and bought my first professional camera, Sony A7iv and began drafting up a storyboard and moved on to planning.
3) Planning everything, shooting and editing simultaneously. ( April - July 2024)
I bought several pieces of equipment as I found the need and began shooting scenes. I built an entire pre-production plan for the film, organised all the scenes in relevant categories and the times they needed to be shot at, as well as including the weather.
For the c.g.i scenes, I needed overcast weather, and that required a ton of plans that kept failing but despite the 3-6 hour long rides, I got the shots that were needed.
Shot solo in real locations. I performed on camera, set frames, captured sound, and carried gear. Every constraint forced clarity: what matters stays; nothing else mattered.
Poetic, slightly uncanny. Negative space, natural light, and controlled shadows. Long holds that earn their cut.
The editing was in process while shooting was still going on. I colour graded the clips, added placeholders for cgi to be done later and built the entire timeline of the film in DaVinci Resolve.
4) Leaving Meghalaya, disappointed but also PUMPED (August 2024)
Monsoon had begun, and I could no longer shoot retakes. I felt disappointed by a few takes but decided to just use whatever I have than delay everything by a year, and left the beautiful valleys of Meghalaya for the buildings of Bangalore to work on CGI, green-screen scenes that were built from the lore I had begun to write.
5) Editing, CGI, Music Grind (September - January 2024)
First, I worked on building the entire world that begins the film, the world where our main character is stuck, without any memory. This took an entire month filled with irritated day, sleepless nights, and I just wanted to give up, but didn't, and eventually it was done. I finished the rest of the CGI and began working on the soundtrack.
The soundtrack was extremely hard; I had no clue how to build the feeling of the world through music, but like everything, I was learning and executing at the same time. I learned Cubase, I already had decent knowledge of music, still joined piano classes, and eventually I began writing the music and the feel of the film. It took another frustrating 2 months; at the same time, I was sound designing the entire film, which was hell but pushed through.
The film was finished on January 23, but still, lots of work was left. The puzzling website, content, stills, etc. Everything was done by February 5th, and the project was officially complete and ready to be sent to film festivals.
6) What It Proved
A single person with enough determination, grit, and drive can originate, perform, capture, and finish a feature film without a.i. But that was not the only motivation. I wanted to build worlds, and I built one, with complete authorship. This one film is just the beginning and I am not stopping.
Check out the trailer here.
Shot Deck Image - 4 (real location + cgi)
Shot Deck Image - 5 (cgi location)
Shot Deck Image - 5 (cgi location)
Shot Deck Image - 6 (real location)
Shot Deck Image - 7 (cgi location)
Other Projects:
Our Little Worlds of Desires:
An unknown being wakes up scared and wishes for a sunflower in a world without sun.
Director, Writer, Composer, Actor, 3D Artist, and creator: Dhruv Vyas
Watch here.
Views: 400k Likes: 16.8K Saves: 1347 Shares: 1067 Comments: 198
Forgotten Memories 2:
This is a series of videos (this is not in the film; these videos are a companion to the film) meant to be watched both before and after watching "Deaf To Happiness".
Director, Writer, Composer, Actor, 3D Artist, and creator: Dhruv Vyas
Watch here.
Views: 530k Likes: 27.5K Saves: 1911 Shares: 1249 Comments: 191
COLLABORATIONS / BRAND WORK
I collaborate with brands, artists, and creators drawn to emotion, mystery, and surreal beauty, the kind of work that feels human but slightly impossible.
I build cinematic stories that challenge perception and linger in memory, crafted end to end with intent, style, and clarity. If your project needs a director who can think like an artist, execute like a technician, and make meaning feel alive, we’ll create something worth remembering.