Kriti Mehrotra
If t here’s one thing absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that Hargobind “Harvey” Punjabi Tahilramani really broke all bounds with his alleged scam involving entertainment professionals. After all, as explored in ‘Hollywood Con Queen,’ he apparently targeted gig workers by impersonating industry executives before ruining them financially as well as psychologically. Amongst them was, unfortunately, filmmaker and producer Will Strathmann, whose determination combined with a bit of naivety resulted in him having to face a situation unlike any other.
Who is Will Strathmann?
It was reportedly back when Will Strathmann was just a young boy that he first developed a really keen interest in the world of entertainment, only for it to continue expanding as the years passed. Nevertheless, upon graduating high school, he went down the more traditional path and pursued a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Bates College in the hope of stability, yet it soon changed. In fact, mere months following his May 2013 graduation, he kickstarted his content creation, content management, plus filming career as a Communications Assistant at The Island School.
Will actually ventured out on his own less than a year later, but it was in 2017 that his world truly turned upside down as he believed he’d gotten an e-mail from renowned producer Amy Pascal. “At that point, I did look up the name, saw who it was, and… [began] wondering why I’m getting an e-mail from this Hollywood producer,” the then-Denver resident conceded in the series. “But I’ve worked as a freelance photographer and filmmaker for the majority of my professional career. Sometimes, I would have a job come out of nowhere,” so he thought this is what that was.
As per Will’s own narrative, he then directly got a call from Amy stating she was planning to pitch a poignant travel show to Netflix based on the children’s book ‘Sidewalk Flowers,’ yet she needed his services. He said, “She wanted to send me on a week-long trial trip to Indonesia to find these storylines that will accumulate into me essentially presenting a storyboard for the pilot of this TV Show. I remember after that phone call, I definitely had thoughts of ‘Why me?’ but also ‘You have to take risks.’ This was such an incredible opportunity for where I was at that point in my life.”
Little did Will know that this single trip would turn into three within a three-week period, all the while he was running low on funds since reimbursements for his expenses never came through. He and Amy thus exchanged a few frustrated words, yet the former still made things work by borrowing money from his parents, that is, until his father quickly realized something was wrong. The elder Strathmann was the one to call investigator Nicole Kotsianas, from whom he learned of the Hollywood Con Queen as well as the long-running scam his son had unwittingly fallen into.
He hence immediately contacted Will, and Nicole got in touch with him too, especially because the professional filmmaker simply didn’t want to believe him at first — he couldn’t fathom the lies. “Then, something in me switches,” he expressed in the original production. “Like all these things start coming together… That’s literally my reality being torn apart. It was terryfying.” The fact he was already in Bali at this point — in an unknown area of an unknown nation — didn’t help either, as he didn’t know who he could trust, driving him to make plans to return home without informing anyone.
The only thought running in Will’s mind back then was, “If somebody’s so crazy to come up with this entire scheme, who’s to say they’re not just gonna kidnap me and make me disappear?” Therefore, he worked as swiftly as possible in his paranoia and reached the airport hours before his flight to the US, during which he understandably even asked Nicole for some proof of identity. But alas, it wasn’t until he was actually in the air that he felt physically safe again — as for his mind, it took him days to settle down, with his only consolation from Nicole being the scammer had already moved on.
Will Strathmann is Thriving Today
Despite the fact that Will lost a total of $54,452 in this scam — $38,039 in vendor fees he’d paid in cash plus $16,413 he’d spent on flights, he now seems to be doing very well for himself. In fact, this adventure filmmaker, director of photography, diver, and FPV (first-person view drone) pilot for hire is now based in New York, where he proudly operates his own media company.
His clients actually include the band Coldplay, Canon, Fox Sports, National Geographic, Speedo, Toyota, White Claw Hard Seltzer, as well as many other brands, yet today, he’s arguably most proud of his underwater cinematography work. Coming to his personal life, it appears as if this producer recently got engaged to the love of his life, actress Shanley Caswell (‘The Conjuring’), and so, of course, we wish him nothing but the best for his future.
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