Photo by: Sela Shiloni
We caught up with award-winning filmmaker Sharat Raju who directs the first two episodes of the second season of Amazon Freevee‘s Bosch: Legacy which premiered on October 20. Sharat has more than 40 episodes of major cable, network, and streaming series among his credits. He has also directed episodes of major American television series, including Scandal, The Walking Dead, Fear The Walking Dead, How to Get Away with Murder, Once Upon A Time, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Good Doctor, and others.
We asked Sharat about getting into the film industry, what he learned from his directing experience with Bosch: Legacy, working on The Walking Dead and the horror genre, and more.
Check out our conversation below.
What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
Sharat Raju (SR): I grew up in the Midwest with immigrant parents, so we were pretty far removed from the film industry. But I loved movies and going to the theater was such a special, transportive experience. I had no real sense that one could become a filmmaker as a profession. I mean, I knew someone made films, but I didn’t ever think that I could possibly do that. Our family was very literate; therefore, books, reading, and writing were an important part of our lives, and I loved disappearing into a story or creating one myself. When I went to college, I worked at the newspaper and writing. I thought I’d probably go on to get an MFA in creative writing and try to become a novelist, but then I started making short film projects and discovered that filmmaking felt very much like writing to me, but in three dimensions.
Instead of using only words to tell your story, you could use people and space and light and camera and time. After seeing an audience react to something I made, that in some small measure I was able to transport people away and give them the feeling I have when I go to a movie, well I just fell in love with filmmaking. And didn’t want to do anything else. I just needed to get better, keep making projects, and ] learn more – which is the lifelong journey for a filmmaker. Keep doing it, learn from mistakes, try to do what you did right again, and hopefully get a chance to keep doing it.
What can you tell us about your experience directing Bosch: Legacy?
SR: Bosch: Legacy is one of my favorite shows to work on. In many ways, it’s a dream job for a director working in television – you get a terrific cast, writing that is top notch, and a show that embraces directors to be filmmakers and to tell a story cinematically. And it showcases Los Angeles in a way that few shows get a chance to. The show embraces its noir leanings from the original Bosch series and from Michael Connelly’s novels. The whole team works well together, and I’ve always felt like everyone is trying to tell the same story and are following the same marching orders.
What were some learning experiences from a filmmaking/storytelling perspective you gained
on the set of Bosch: Legacy?
SR: I find I learn a little bit more every time I direct a project, though to be honest, I get a little amnesia after I finish the fog of production so some of the details of this last shoot are a little blurry (also it was summer of 2022 so, a little while back). For the first two episodes of Season 2 that just came out (spoiler alert if you haven’t seen them yet), I got to work with scorpions for the first time. Real scorpions – which were not as hard to work with as I thought they would be. Not saying that, you know, I’m looking for my next scorpion-related directing assignment necessarily. But I’ll add it to my ever-growing list of animals I’ve had the pleasure of working with.
Does your approach to filmmaking change depending on the project or genre, or do you have a go
to method/mindset?
SR: As an episodic director, you are faced with new challenges and styles depending on the show and so there are some adjustments in how you approach a story. For example, in a crime drama, you might have a script that throws suspicion on someone who is ultimately not the criminal. But you have to set that idea up, so there are things you need to do to as a director to make sure you’ve set that up – whether it’s additional coverage on that character or something else. But in a much larger sense, when I approach anything, I try to play the movie in my mind as if I’m watching it after it’s been made. And that starts with finding the emotional truth of the characters in that story – because it’s their story and we have to believe they’re real people with real emotions and real struggles.
So, I try to start with understanding the characters’ emotional arcs, try to understand them as real people, and go from there. Even if it’s a fantasy show or a horror franchise or a crime show, I try to believe the people are real, plan to stage them in a way I think these real people would move and behave, and then I’m just shooting an artistic documentary about their lived experience (a documentary I can manipulate of course…). This has been my approach no matter what the genre or project.
You also worked on The Walking Dead. What was it like it working on that show at a time where
there is a big appetite for horror content?
SR: The Walking Dead is another series I’ve loved working on. It’s definitely fun to work on a show that’s largely responsible for the resurgence and elevation of the zombie subgenre. We had some of the top craftspeople in their fields – the best special effects makeup artists, the best visual and special effects teams, top notch crews – so we had all of what we needed to tell a story in that genre the best way we could. But, to me, The Walking Dead was a show about humanity and the zombies were only secondary.
It was (and is, in the spinoffs) a great “what if” show – what if the structures of society you depended on, everything you took for granted, what if all that evaporated. What would society look like? What would family look like? What would trust and love and friendship look like? How would you organize society – would you gather together and rebuild, or would you stay apart in isolation? Those central tensions, when that show was clicking, would delve into that and then also have the horror and suspense as a backdrop or woven in to it. It was really wonderful to work in that world.
What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers who don’t have any connections to the
industry?
SR: The most important thing, at first, is to keep creating. The major aspect of starting out that is different now than 20 years ago when I started is that you have a mini movie studio in your pocket. With access to a camera, easy access to editing equipment, a way to show it to people – you can basically conceive a film and execute with very few hurdles. Now, it might not be good but that’s why you have to show your creation to people, learn from your mistakes, avoid those mistakes, and repeat. If you want to break into the film business itself – I have to say that no two people have gotten into the business the same way, I’ve discovered.
The first is of course making something notable or great and it will get noticed. To get it noticed by people who can help you make something bigger – that’s the tricky part. You’d have to put yourself in a position to meet people who can be part of your team to help you achieve that, either by working in the industry on set or in a production office or an agency, or by going to film school or by just plain luck. Meeting the right people is a very important part of getting into the business, but the most important thing is to keep creating. If you’re a writer keep writing, if you’re an actor keep performing and developing your craft, if you’re a director keep making projects. Keep creating.
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Bosch: Legacy is streaming on Amazon Freevee.