AKANKSHA JAIN

In this interview, we delve into the world of AKANKSHA JAIN, who share her inspirations and unique perspectives.

Akanksha Jain

1. Introduce Yourself to the Casawi Community: What drives you? What's your artistic vision, and what sets you apart from the crowd?

Hey Casawi fam, I'm Akanksha Jain. A digital artist and motion designer based in Mumbai. I run Othersoul Studio, where we blend the surreal with the cinematic, often at the edge of fashion, technology, and worldbuilding.

>>What drives me? The thrill of building worlds that feel a bit unexpected, a bit dreamlike yet sharply resonant. My art tends to live in surreal dimensions. Human-ish forms, shape-shifting environments, and visuals that feel a bit too alive. The opportunity to bend genres of art while building worlds, developing contexts around the world give my work so much purpose and meaning.

2. City Inspirations: How has your city influenced your artistic path? Share how its streets, culture, and energy have molded your work.

I love this question because I adore big cities and architecture in general. I’ve always had a thing for cities. Not in the postcard sense, but in how they feel when you walk through them half-awake, concrete under your feet, traffic humming away, and that strange silence you only find in really loud places. I was born in Mumbai to parents who moved here chasing independence and ambition, which, in 1980s India, was still a pretty radical thing.

My mom’s an architect. I grew up watching her shape parts of the city, hunched for hours over a drafting table, sketching blueprints that turned into buildings. For fun, she’d show me 3D models from strange angles and ask, “Can you guess what this is?” It was like a puzzle, and I was hooked. Her world of tracing paper (best invention ever), scalpel blades, and Rotring pens felt like magic and I maybe wanted my own version of it.

Back then, I didn’t know I’d end up doing something related to worldbuilding. But looking back, the influence is obvious. The noise, textures, and crowd compositions of a big city have shaped how I perceive space and how I imagine new ones. That saturation is still in my work: layered, lived-in, a little chaotic, a little sacred.

The city got into me early. The textures, the noise, the way everything overlaps and collides. It shaped how I see, and maybe even how I escape. That’s where the instinct for worldbuilding comes from, I think. Trying to hold space for both chaos and clarity.

Tokyo was a later chapter, but a big one. I visited a bunch while working on Akiverse.io, and every time I landed, it felt like entering another dimension. It’s a place that’s constantly designing itself, from vending machines to alleyways. Nothing’s random??? It makes me hyper aware of composition, of restraint, of what it means to be thoughtful with your environment. Sometimes I close my eyes, and I end up in a random back alley of Akihabara and all of a sudden I'm in a game-like simulation. Buh-bye world, see ya in sometime.Cities make me want to slow down and sharpen my eyes. I carry that with me all the time.

3. Creative Process: What fuels your creativity? Whether it's a ritual, a muse, or a moment of clarity, we're keen to learn.

My creative process is QUITE shapeshift-y. Sometimes it begins with a visual, a mood, or a phrase I can’t stop thinking about. I legit get inspired by words and sound a lot. Also by the movement of my surroundings - shadow-play, light-play, that kind of stuff. Working with my partner Rohan—who, in my completely unbiased opinion, is the most versatile music producer I’ve ever encountered, has shaped how deeply I now listen. His ability to translate emotion into sonic language has taught me to let sound guide the visual world when it wants to. We often build pieces where the music and visuals grow together, almost like a conversation in motion.

I work on a lot of launch film-format projects and this capability has driven me and nourished me so successfully. We often build worlds together where the score and the scene evolve in sync, like two halves of the same dream. Inspiration sometimes also sneaks in quietly, when I’m walking, listening to obscure genres of music, cooking, zoning out. I continuously work on just learning to stay tuned in.

4. City Lifestyle and Art: How the places you lived influenced your career and work?

I studied design in Bangalore, business in Scotland, spent most of my working life in Bombay, and have spent long stretches in Tokyo. Each city has added something different to the way I think and create.

What I love about city life is the closeness. I'm never too far from art, from other creatives, from new perspectives. That kind of access has supported me through both the good days and the really difficult ones.

Choosing to pursue a creative career is a privilege in itself, especially coming from a background where stability was often valued over self-expression. I’m very aware that not everyone gets to choose this path freely. It wasn't easy for me either when I started out. At the same time, I’ve learned that privilege can’t shield me from uncertainty. The challenges shift shape with time, creative block, financial pressure, self-doubt, burnout. No blueprint really prepares you for that. It keeps shifting.

But despite that, I love that I can keep coming back to the same instinct to build. Cities gave me the space to do that. And I think part of me is always trying to give something back through the work and perspectives that I put out.

5. Latest or Upcoming Projects: Give us a glimpse into your current endeavors and what lies ahead on your creative journey.

I recently finished working on a CGI launch film for a nightclub in Hyderabad, where digital mythology blends with sculpture and cinematic environments. It was a deep dive into texture, mood, and architectural storytelling.

I’ve also been developing a visual series called Fruit Seeker. It’s playful and slightly surreal—fruits with human traits like sweat, blinking, or goosebumps. What started as a loose idea has turned into a space for instinctive visual exploration, without any brief or agenda.

At Othersoul, apart from our commercial projects, Rohan and I have been diving into a lot of R&D and exploratory work around interactive experiences—AR, VR, and physical installations that combine design, sound, and immersion. It’s still taking shape, but we’re building toward formats that feel both experimental and emotionally resonant.Up next is a character-led installation for an interactive play-space. We’re building abstract mascots that can exist both on screen and as physical sculptures. I’ve had to learn new tools, explore different styles, and clean up parts of my workflow I usually ignore. FUN!!

This year feels like a shift. I’m more open to work that stretches what I know, work that’s bigger, more layered, more distant from the shadows of otherly opinions. So I’m making space for that. Whatever it looks like.

Akanksha Jain

Akanksha Jain

Akanksha Jain

Akanksha Jain

Akanksha Jain

Akanksha Jain

Akanksha Jain

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Instagram: @akankshajain.space | @othersoul.io
Website: othersoul.io