Going Against the Grain While Remaining Grounded

What will yourvisiting card say?Filmmaker, musicianor academic?

Someone asked this of BabarSheikh, ostensibly offeringadvice on the importanceof choosing one’s careerpath. But a few minutes intomy conversation with him, Iunderstand this is not someonewho can fit into one designation.He has proven that one canwear the hats of a filmmaker –commercials, documentariesand cinema – musician, artistand educator, with confidenceand clarity.

It does, however, posea challenge as far as theinterview goes. For the sakeof brevity, I chose to focuson Sheikh’s trajectory as afilmmaker, while recognisingthat his links to his music andband were never far behind.

Sheikh was born in Karachiin December 1978 to a humblefamily; both his parents worked,which he says was not ascommon as it is now. Herecognised early that “if youwanted to become somethingin this country and you don’thave contacts left right andcentre, one had to forge one’sown identity.”

“I think [my upbringing has]contributed marvellously towho I am,” he continues, overa cup of coffee at the canteenat Indus Valley School of Art& Architecture, where he isvisiting faculty.

He pursued pre-med at collegebefore hearing “my true calling,which was art,” in 1993/4. Hewas spending time with an uncle,a graphic designer from Punjab,in his studio outside Pakistanand saw the appeal of art anddesign. But when he “droppedthe bomb on his parents,” therewas resistance – they triedto convince him that artistsdon’t make money – but thensupported him. He was admittedto Indus Valley in the mid-nineties in the communicationdesign track.

He was the youngest inhis class and the youngestgraduate. He also received adistinction for his thesis, as hechose to go against the grainby not pursuing the requirementof creating a campaign for acompany or product. Instead,his thesis was in purely graphicart – a risk he chose to take andone that paid off well.

I ask whether he learnedto take risks at a young age.He nods. “From a very youngage, I always thought aboutdoing things my own way, fromscience experiments to buildingmy instruments.”

He credits music – specifically,heavy metal – and which cameinto his life at a young age, formaking him a risk taker. “Thevisual of the culture – men withlong hair, in bandanas, rockstars – appealed to me.” Hewanted to grow his hair as ayoung child but wasn’t alloweduntil he got to Indus Valley.Today, his shoulder-length hair istied in a ponytail.

While still a student, Sheikhbegan to watch movies that hadbeen donated to the college byan embassy. These films openeda whole new world for him; asdid the photography class whichtaught him the basics of framing.Armed with that, he was able toplay with a friend’s video camera.He created an experimentalfilm, which he turned into a CVof sorts and handed out in VHStape format to agencies.

The late nineties/early 2000swas a transformational timein Pakistan.

Sheikh is playing in his heavymetal band, a local undergroundband and doing a lot of gigs. Heis watching films on his own aspart of his learning, and he isworking in a design house whilestudying. Musharraf is in charge,things are opening up in creativeart and people are returning toPakistan to open up businesses,cafés and other ventures. Thevideo CV lands him his first gigat Asiatic as an art director. Trueto form, he begins producingwork without compromising onhis identity.

“The whole gender thing isan issue today,” he tells me,“but I used to get a kick out ofwearing anklets. I was dressedin kolhapuris, painting mytoenails black, wearing eyemake-up, 23 years ago. I walkedinto Unilever dressed like that toget my first commercial.”

He acknowledges that whilehe stood out for his look, he wasrespected and recognised for histalent and confidence.

He has a humility devoidof any of the faux attributesused in interviews to impressaudiences. He recognises how,20 years ago, he was perceivedas obnoxious. “I wanted tobecome larger than life, I didn’tknow where to stop, and it justkept on going to the point whereI was loud.”

“I am 40% of what I was then,”he says, adding that he hasbeen through a lot and simmereddown. “I realise it’s not aboutspreading your vastness; thebeauty is containing it. It takes awhile to realise this.”

Next, he landed a job atPyramid Productions, thenheaded by Rohail Hyatt, andsoon he was producing musicvideos, which caught the eyeof Ali Haider, who asked him todirect his new single Jadu. It wasa kicks-tart to his career in film.

Then came the requestsfor ads, corporate films anddocumentaries. He has beenthe recipient of grants fromthe Goethe Institute and whichopened a whole new vista ofopportunities to collaboratewith filmmakers in Europe.He has been working as anindependent filmmaker for thelast 20 years under his companyname, ‘Diagram’.

The opportunities havebeen bountiful and he remainsgrateful, and I believe grounded.Even during the low points,whether it was about thingsnot working out the way hehoped or losing his fatherduring the pandemic.

The industry, which hasgrown exponentially, can alsobe brutal. “There’s no check onwell-being, there’s no check onmental health, there’s no checkon how many hours you areputting in.” That, he says, has tochange, though he understandshow difficult it is to turn downjobs with tight schedules whenthe market is so competitive.“I’m a sucker for a goodstoryline,” he adds.

The EBM ‘School GirlsNewscasters’ campaign is onesuch example. The idea wasconceived by Ali Rez, ChiefCreative Officer Impact BBDO(Sheikh calls him an inspiration)who wanted to highlight theimportance of female educationin Pakistan. It showed schoolgirls, who three years earliercould not read, playing the roleof news anchors. The ad wasbroadcast earlier this year onthree channels. He loved travellingto various TV stations across thecountry to work on this campaignwhich was a stark differencefrom the “glamorous world ofadvertising.” It won the prestigious‘Glass: Lion for Change’ at theCannes Lions Festival.

I have to ask about his highlyanticipated cinema debut, whichhas been reported on for twoyears, the last being that he hasa script with an acclaimed writerBee Gul. He says he is hopefulhe will be able to work on it soon.“It’s not going to be a supercommercial masalaydar film, butI am also sensible; it’s not goingto bankrupt a producer.”

While Babar Sheikh hasnot directed his first film forcinema, he likens being on theproduction team of Carma,an action revenge thriller thatreleased last year and did fairlywell, as “nature’s way of tellingyou when to step back and whento step forward.”

Muna Khan researchesnewsroom culture in Pakistan andtweets@LedeingLady