One of the biggest obstacles Pratik Churi had to overcome in his life was to convince his parents to change his career.
An Indian International student who has played A-level cricket in India and is studying Sports Science in Australia currently says he had to work hard to gain his parents’ confidence when he changed his career from engineering to sports.
“Most parents in India want their children to be an Engineer or a doctor and my parents wanted the same for me. They wanted me to be an engineer,” says Pratik.
Pratik enrolled for Diploma in Electrical Engineering in Mumbai but soon realised he was not cut out for it.
“I was following the career that my parents had set out for me but while studying I realised it was the most unproductive thing I was doing,” he says.
Pratik wanted to be in the field of sports.
“I wanted to play cricket,” he says.
Pratik dropped out of engineering course after a year to pursue cricket.
“I started playing cricket at an age when people generally stop playing it. I had to train twice as hard. People were putting in one training session, I was putting in two,” he says.
Pratik was successful and was soon picked up to play for a local cricket tournament in Mumbai.
“One coach saw me and picked me for a team to play A level cricket tournaments,” he shares.
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It was while training for cricket, Pratik developed an interest in exercise. He then pursued a course in Exercise and Sport Science from American College of Sports Medicine.
“I pursued this course from the money I had saved from playing cricket tournaments. I did not want to use my parents’ money,” he said.
Interest in Exercise and Sports Medicine brought Pratik to Australia.
“I am currently pursuing Exercise and Sports Science at Deakin University,” he says.
Pratik says it took a lot of hard work and sincerity to convince his parents to let him change his career.
“I worked hard and showed them where I could reach. I did well in cricket and also in the sports medicine course and that is how I won their confidence,” he says.
This short documentary was produced by Film, TV and Animation Course students at Deakin University.
Source: Supplied
“I knew Pratik and I felt he had a great story to share about how we should follow our passion even when parents may not agree. The theme was ‘Change’ and he perfectly fits the bill,” says Sam Lee, writer and director of the film.
Dan Coates who filmed and edited the documentary says Pratik’s story was very strong.
“He had a very strong story to share. We may not always want to follow what our parents want us to do. His life was a great message where he has succeeded by following his dreams. We wanted to get this across to people,” Dan says.
Jason Skyllas worked as a music supervisor and Vikrant Kishore supervised the documentary as the executive producer.
