ABOUT THIS EPISODE
She graduated into a pandemic, left her job, moved to LA, and spent four years throwing her own savings at a documentary about a South Asian basketball team no one knew existed, before a single distributor said yes. Shubhangi Shekhar joins Ritika Agrawal to talk about what it actually costs to bet on yourself before anyone else will, and why the story she needed to tell wasn't a sports story at all.
Her documentary *Hoop Like This* is now making the festival rounds after four years in the making.
Shubhangi explains:
■Why "delusional confidence" isn't the same as self-belief — and which one actually got the film made
■How she lost 35 pounds and then gained 40 from stress, and what that taught her about the creative life
■The fundraising playbook nobody tells you: fiscal sponsorship, donor-advised funds, and employee matching programs
■Why your day job is a fundraiser for everything you love to do — and what to look for in one
■The unexpected bond between a South Asian filmmaker and South Asian basketball players doing something no one had done before
■How community building actually works: why your network is the people who showed up when you weren't doing anything impressive
■Why 25% of the world's population is not a niche audience — and how to pitch that to a Netflix exec in three sentences
■The one piece of advice she'd give every indie filmmaker: figure out the money piece first, then function confidently in your art
Chapters:
(00:00): Intro
(04:10): The Origin Story: A Friend, a Team, and a Pivot to Taiwan
(10:30): What "Delusional Confidence" Really Costs You
(17:45): The Film Nobody Picked Up — and Why She Kept Shooting Anyway
(24:20): How She Actually Funded *Hoop Like This*
(31:00): Fiscal Sponsorship, DAFs, and the Financial Literacy Gap No One Talks About
(38:15): Community Is Who Showed Up When You Had Nothing
(45:30): 25% of the World Is Not a Niche
(50:40): The 9-to-5 as a Creative Fundraiser
(54:20): Burnout, Functional and Otherwise
(58:10): The Playbook: Know Your Why, Fix Your Finances, Then Make Your Art
(1:02:30): What Comes After *Hoop Like This*
(1:04:00): Rapid Fire: Courtside or Film Festival, Work Out More, Go to Sleep Happy
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