Profile Interviews:
Musician
One of the first things you will notice about Ali Azmat is that not only is he a wonderful entertainer, he is a very gracious host and makes sure everyone around him is fully tended to. The second thing you’ll notice is that despite the entertaining he does off-stage, cracking jokes and striking up conversations with those in his presence, he is always watching and observing everyone and everything around him. You can run, you can hide, but his quietly inquisitive eyes will find you wherever you are. In an exclusive heart-to-heart with Images, Ali talks about what all he’s been up to, how is album is coming out and on him as a producer.
Musician
Soul Survivor
Jehanzeb has had one thing dominate his life throughout and it’s the only thing he’s known in its entirety — to sing. In an age when most children learn the subtleties involved in communicating with others, Jehanzeb hosted his own concert and pulled it off well.
Musician
Second time lucky?
With a career spanning over 17 years, Ali Haider has seen it all. Both his personal and professional lives have followed a similar pattern: he arrived with a bang in the early 1990s, stole people’s hearts with his shy smile and pop-tunes and he continued to do so until late in the decade.
Musician
Ali Zafar is not just a pretty face. Behind the dreamy, often dazed eyes and dimpled smile that has adorned many billboards (with many more to come) is a person who knows what he wants — and is willing to do just about everything to get things the way he likes them.
Photographer
“If I have done anything good in photography, it’s because I have really learned it. I didn’t feel like I was a born Picasso and that all I had to do was pick up a camera and I was good to go. I worked my backside in trying to learn and I made sure that I was getting enough exposure to see what was happening around the world”
Deepak Perwani
Designer
“I see myself as a non-conformist to Pakistani fashion because I’ve always believed that I’m designing — call it arrogance or my own satisfaction to my own creativity — what I’ve liked to design. Whether you understand it or not, or like it or not, that’s your problem. As far as I’m concerned, the global village or the global world understands me very well.”
Musician
Growing up in the nineties, there were very few role models in the Pakistani media that one being a female one could look up to. More so, there were even fewer that one could relate to. But Hadiqa Kiyani changed all of that…
Musician
Addicted to love
lf there is any person who signifies pop when it comes to musicians in the entertainment industry, it’s Haroon Rashid. He was previously one-half of the now defunct band Awaz, one of the most successful musical acts in the country and perhaps Pakistan’s o
riginal boy band.
Musicians
Keeping it real with Josh
Contrary to belief, the Josh lads turned out to be rather nice. They were in Karachi recently for the launch of their third album, Mausam, and despite a hectic schedule during their three-day stay, they agreed to a last minute interview.
Musicians
The Kolachi Quartet’s jazz thing
Emu (Imran Momina/keyboards), Khalid
Khan (bass guitar), Abbas Premjee (classical guitar) and Gumby (Luis J. Pinto/drums) – have just gotten new, hip, rock ‘n’ roll-oriented dos from the Queen of Style herself, Nabila. Standing nearby is the designer known for dressing up most of the musicians in the industry: Munib Nawaz. He is responsible for the carefully-tailored, stylish suits the boys are wearing. The occasion? The aforementioned musicians have come together and formed a band, predominantly jazz and improvisation-oriented, with a distinct ethnic flavour to their music. And together, they call themselves The Kolachi Quartet.
Film maker
Minority report: Ramchand Pakistani
Mehreen Jabbar, not an unknown figure in the Pakistani entertainment industry, is a storyteller at heart. Her work is often recognised as being based on the lives and dilemmas of the ordinary Pakistani woman, and she is often quoted as having a fresh, original style of film-making. With all of that safely tucked under her belt, it made sense that this bundle of talent would eventually release her own full-length feature film — or at least attempt to.
Designer
‘Music sounds better with you; looks better with me’
He is the designer who could be a model and his reputation as the musicians’ designer makes one wonder whether he secretly aspires to be a musician himself. The story of Munib Nawaz’s journey into fashion design is a simple one, how he chose to establish his label is a road-less-travelled by most designers in the local industry: by dressing all of the musicians. With ‘wardrobe by Munib Nawaz’ gracing the credits for every other music video, people were bound to take note.
Dancer/Entrepreneur
There are different kinds of storytellers — some prefer to express themselves vocally, by song while others prefer to communicate via the written word. Omar Rahim, on the other hand, chooses to express himself via a medium that isn’t literal in its context and known for the sheer amount of discipline and hard work needed to master it: dance.
Rushk: Un
s Mufti & Ziyyad Gulzaar
Musicians
They made a quiet appearance sometime several years ago and slipped out of the limelight without much fuss either. Those who were aware of their presence labelled their work as a product of genius and could not understand why it failed to create a bang back then.
Musicians
Ten years from now, they will still be known as the musicians from Peshawar who sang in English: an identity they will find very hard to shrug off. When Sajid and Zeeshan first came onto the Pakistani music scene, the idea of desi musicians singing in a foreign language was relatively unheard of.
Music video director
“It’s going to happen; it’s going to take its own sweet time. I’m going to do what Shoaib Mansoor did: I’m going to quietly start and make it and when it’s ready for the world I will come and talk about it. Before, I blabbed way too much and I’ve had to answer for that,” replied Saqib when confronted with whether or not his debut film, ‘Ajnabi Shehr Mein’, will ever make it to production.
Documentary maker
Living in reel time
A Pakistani documentary-mak
er based in Karachi, Paris, New York and Canada, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy has won accolades from all over the world — the most notable being the Livingston Award for journalism and being the only non-American so far to have received it. Sharmeen isn’t one to sit back when there is a story at hand or to get intimidated by the material she uncovers.
Designer
As a person, Yousuf Bashir Qureshi is hard to ignore: with sharp, intelligent eyes that visibly twinkle over a large fashionable moustache, seemingly unkempt hair and always dressed in a dhoti, he is quite the character, and not just visually. Three years ago, after having lived in the States for a little more than a decade, he came back to Pakistan.
Musicians
They’re not your regular run-of-the-mill, girls’ next door although they may certainly look it. These ladies have a secret: they can sing! Not only that, but they can do it pretty darn well. To anyone who has an avid interest in the Pakistani music industry, Zeb and Haniya are no strangers: they’re the voices behind the radio and Internet hit, Chup.
