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Sam Vaghani, 36, has articulate insight in the film industry, music industry, and multiple other dimensions of entertainment. Sam has learned over time about the different industries within entertainment, observing how they’ve evolved and how they relate to American culture, politics, industry and other aspects of society. Working in entertainment himself, he uses what he’s learned to move his own career forward and gain a better idea of where entertainment may be headed in the future. Good examples are the transition to the digital universe at companies like Nielsen.
When it comes to Hollywood and the Film/TV industry, Vaghani has realized that creators often go back about 20 years, and sometimes even further, to find inspiration for the content they create for the modern cinema. In today’s media landscape, this has led to many reboots and remakes as well as stories centered around the Millennial generation and stories from children of immigrants. These stories reflect how people from these backgrounds have influenced a society or have been influenced by the society around them.
A prime example of this is one of Vaghani’s projects as a film producer and financier. He is working closely with Ray Charles Jr. to produce a documentary on Charles’ father, music legend Ray Charles. The documentary looks at his legacy as a father, his music legacy, and the intergenerational storytelling that took place through his work and life. The film takes a close look at seven decades of African American history and entertainment and the influence it has had on the world.
Through this history Vaghani creates a path back to the biggest influences of today. In movie terms, Charles’ work and life is a perfect prequel to modern African Americanism and diversity. Ray Charles, producer Quincy Jones, and their infamous girl bands can be linked to the musical powerhouses of today in genres like hip-hop, rap, and soul music. Charles’ music helped shape civil rights in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s and the music’s influence on equality, diversity, equity, and commonality movements can also be seen today through movements like Black Lives Matter. There are over seven decades of correlation between the efforts of numerous social movements and Ray Charles’s music and bands.
Even beyond Charles and African-American culture, creators around the world are resorting to the ideas of decades past for their creative expressions. In many ways this mirrors our greater society facing the obstacles that were also presented in those times, such as fighting for social causes like women’s rights, rights for peoples with disabilities, and opportunity for peoples of different social backgrounds. Entertainment has always mirrored society. This makes stories and experiences from the past have constant relevance to the present day.
Vaghani also believes strongly in the idea of commonality in globalization across the world. His Credo SameinCommon, represents commonality of all peoples in 7 continents throughout 7 decades, and SameinCommon’s CommonSense explains the methods of creating change for the progressive world. Thanks to technology, people across the globe can follow the same set of ideas. This includes ideas in and from entertainment’s digital space available to everyone around the world. In traditional media, this means that we can all relate to ideas presented in a variety of media projects. In non-traditional spaces, this idea means that people have their input, advice, niche product, or recommendation that they can give out to people everywhere (ex: social media).
Vaghani spent his early life in Chicago, and currently lives and works in the Hollywood area. Through all of this, he has seen how the New York entertainment scene, “Chicollywood,” which he gives lots of credit towards many films of today, and Hollywood all handle each of his ideas on entertainment a bit differently. He has even gotten to be a part of changing each of these spaces. Since 2017, Sam has actively been involved in the missions and first events of the New Where Art Can Occur (Waco) Theater and Richard Lawson Studios launch of North Hollywood, and has initiated a new artistic sagacity for his goals.
Media and society will always be changing, but they will always be linked to history. The backsight and foresight of Ray Charles is grand in many ways, and everyone wants to learn and hear more of it in artistic displays such as Ray Charles’s first son’s book, just like Brother Ray, Ray Charles’s own biography, a well-known sequel, You Don’t Know: Me Reflections of My Father, Ray Charles, which shows the vivid walkthrough of over seven decades of Ray Charles and Ray Charles Jr. in an autobiography. Sam Vaghani wants to help others see things a bit clearer. He plans on doing this through his own projects and publishing, helping to paint a proper picture of how our past influences representations of our future in trending and artistic ways in this new documentary.
