Mannequin

Ram Rajagopalan is a Vancouver-based filmmaker and founder of RAMAR Productions Ltd., a boutique production company dedicated to bold, socially resonant storytelling. He has independently produced several short films with budgets ranging from CAD 4K to 40K. Thematically wide-ranging, these projects explore subjects such as childhood trauma, passive racism, teenage suicide prevention, and cultural hybridity.

An award-winning filmmaker who transitioned into cinema in 2023 after a two-decade career in tech, where he led large-scale product and software teams at Amazon—heading the Alexa organization in Toronto—and BlackBerry. Driven by a lifelong passion for storytelling, he brings to filmmaking the same leadership skills that once built global tech teams, now applied to assembling high-caliber creative collaborators.

As a producer, Ram has worked with notable talents including director Vivek Elangovan (Alia), cinematographer Mikah Sharkey, and production designer Shivangi Singh; TIFF and CFC alum Connor Gaston (Bagman); and Hiromu Yamawaki (Sandai), with stunts by John Wick 4’s Naoki Tasaki. His directorial debut Mannequin (2024, horror) won Best Emerging Director at Bleeding Tree International and Best Horror Short at ConCarolinas, screened at over ten festivals worldwide including the Canadian Screen Award–qualifying Silver Wave Film Festival, and was a semi-finalist at the BAFTA- and Oscar®-qualifying Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival. Ram’s other projects (Sandai, Oh My Cow) have also been recognized in the Top 40 at major competitions like Crazy8s and Run N Gun.

A 2023 graduate of Vancouver Film School, with additional training in screenwriting and performance at Toronto Metropolitan University and The Second City, Ram gained hands-on experience across multiple production roles—including 1st AD, Script Supervisor, and DOP—before stepping into the director’s chair.

Rooted in Indian street theatre and lived experience, Ram’s work champions BIPOC voices, Tamil-Canadian narratives, and intergenerational stories told with authenticity, cultural nuance, and heart.