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few years ago, a girl called Selina Rashid came into the limelight.
She was the PR manager for a bunch of designers and the industry
was new to the idea of a person specializing in public pelations
alone. And there was definitely a need for it. After building up
loyal clients like fashion designer Kamiar Rokni and jewellery designer
Kiran Aman, Selina Rashid took up PR for the groundbreaking Coke
Studio, PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week and also L'Oreal. Her career graph
shows how there is now room for niches like PR in the burgeoning
industry. It's a new concept, but thanks to Selina's company Lotus,
it is picking up fast.
Selina Rashid is professional to the tee. Before I met her, I thought
being a publicist was all about staging publicity stunts, spreading
sensational rumors and cleverly pulling the right media strings.
History goes to prove it. In the late 1940's, Marilyn Monroe was
at the receiving end of a lot of flack when her nude photographs
were published in Playboy magazine. The photographs were a raving
success and were reproduced onto calendars and key chains but still,
back then Hollywood was still holding on to some shards of morality.
Monroe was criticized for being vulgar. In stepped Harry Brand,
Machiavellian publicist to the stars. Instead of shying away from
public censure, he set about promoting the actress' sultry persona.
He made it known that Marilyn would look good even in a potato sack
and proceeded to circulate photographs of her with a burlap potato
sack draped suggestively around her. Monroe, being the ultimate
pinup girl that she was, looked great and in this way, her publicist
managed to divert attention from her libidinous trysts with Playboy.
Closer to home, Shilpa Shetty's publicist turned the actress' career
around post Big Brother and some expert plastic surgery. For nearly
two years, she was in the news all the time, for everything under
the sun. Soon enough, her former dismal career graph and fashion
disasters were forgotten. She was stunning, a 'controversy queen',
Bollywood's pride and joy. All thanks to the tireless efforts of
a dedicated publicist.
Selina Rashid, however, works differently from her brethren. She
may be publicist to many of Pakistan's glitterati and she certainly
understands the importance of keeping her clients in the news, but
Selina also has certain principles that she lives by. "I don't
think it is necessary for a celebrity to be in the news all the
time," she opines. "If people see too much of a personality,
they eventually assume that this person is all media image and no
work. Yes, we will make sure that our clients' achievements are
highlighted and work towards building a particular image of them.
But we'll never make up stories that can't be verified or pay someone
to lie for us just to keep our clients' names constantly in the
news."
Her professional scruples have worked to her advantage, it seems.
Selina created Lotus Client Management and Public Relations three
years ago. Back then there was no concept of a PR company working
solely towards media recognition and image building. But a lot has
changed in Pakistan in a very short time, especially in the fashion
and entertainment industries. We now have fashion weeks taking place
at the drop of a hat, musicians walking the ramp and providing live
music for fashion shows, models and actresses acting as ambassadors
to multinational brands and designers showing their collections
on international platforms. The days when bored housewives could
sit down with a few tailors and claim to be designers are slowly
fading away. Fashion now means business and only people with the
right training and expertise are managing to make a mark –
specialization is becoming more and more important.
Selina, with her bona fide experience of PR in London, established
Lotus with the aim of mainly representing the oft-interlinked entertainment
and fashion industries. "This is what I've always wanted to
do, why should I be greedy and try to delve into other fields?"
she says. "I'd rather work with a few clients but do my work
well than take up a varied workload but do a mediocre job. We are
a specialized niche business, a small business, and we're happy
the way we are. I am not even interested in event management, although
a lot of companies here handle both PR and events. I have the experience
and training for PR. I don't want to do something I am not passionate
about."
Two of Selina's earliest clients were designers Nickie and Nina
and Kamiar Rokni, fresh from his breakup with Karma. She assiduously
worked on their PR campaigns and eventually, her hard work paid
off. It is now generally accepted that a media image can't be built
up just by making a few phone calls to journalists. Individuals,
events, TV shows and the corporate sector all require specialized
PR companies to develop their brand images. As fashion and entertainment
gains pace, Lotus and other fledgling PR companies that have followed
suit, ensure that it careens forward at an even faster rate.
Despite Lotus' success I ask Selina if her apathy towards meaningless
publicity stunts manages to disgruntle some of her clients? "Yes,
that's one of the problems with running a PR company," she
reveals. "People think that since they are paying you for a
service, you will make sure that they are constantly getting invited
to morning shows or being interviewed for magazines. I get around
this by making sure that my clients know exactly what I am doing
for them and why I am doing it. Good communication is all it takes."
Nevertheless, I insist, doesn't she occasionally start up a sensational
rumor for clients that she's friendly with? "All my clients
are my friends," comes her prompt reply. "I mean, I've
known some of them since childhood but this doesn't mean that I'll
forego my work ethics for them. They are all professionals themselves
and they understand that friendship and work are two different things."
Some of Selina's clients, like Kamiar Rokni, don't really need any
false rumors to stay in the news. As Kami prolifically puts it,
"The limelight tends to follow me around." However, Selina's
the one he turns to before and after an interview, just in case
he's been "a little too honest". "I am quite addicted
to my Lotus," he chortles. "What's the point of being
a jack of all trades but master of none? It's very convenient to
have a specialized company look after my PR requirements while I
concentrate on my fashion house."
Lotus has provided the PR for a number of events including this
year's PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week and Sana Safinaz's prêt a
porter collection launch at Ensemble. The company's repertoire of
clients includes L'Oreal Paris, Garnier, Coke Studio, Kiran Fine
Jewellery and fashion designers Nickie and Nina, Nida Azwer and
Kamiar Rokni. One of Lotus' most publicized projects, Coke Studio,
actually hired the company in its second season. Selina was part
of the show in the first season also – but as a back vocalist.
"I am very passionate about music and singing is something
very personal for me," she says. "I loved singing in Coke
Studio. I was part of this colossal project featuring some of Pakistan's
best musical talent. It was a wonderful experience."
I ask her why she didn't continue singing in the second season if
she liked it so much? Pat comes the professional reply, "Lotus
was hired to publicize the show in the second season. If I had continued
singing the back vocals and at the same time, was publicizing it,
I would feel that I was promoting myself. It wouldn't matter that
I would only be a small part of the show; I would still be jeopardizing
the show's image as well as my professional credibility by being
part of it."
As Lotus' tryst with Coke Studio continues on into the show's third
season, Rohail Hyatt is thankful for the convenience of having a
publicist handle the PR nitty-gritties. "Lotus organizes Coke
Studio's media coverage and it's a lot of help," he says. "Journalists
often have certain requirements. They need interviews to be arranged
and a certain number of photographs. Sometimes we don't have time
to supply them with these details. We come off as snobbish and the
show's media coverage suffers. Lotus very efficiently takes these
tasks off our hands."
With a glamorous clientele to her credit, I ask Selina just how
exciting her job really is. Does her work often keep her in the
background or does she also manage to have some fun? "Of course
I do and I love the perks that come with my work," admits Selina.
"But it is as glamorous as it is mundane. I get to see fashion
shoots and latest collections and I get to attend red carpet events.
At the same time, though, I have to be here at my office at 10 a.m.
everyday and work till late into the evening. This is no ad hoc
business. There is a lot of strategic planning. If an article regarding
a client has to be released to the press, a lot of thought has to
be put into its wording and the exact date of its release. Updated
reports have to be sent to each client and if a client has been
mentioned in any sort of print media, we have to make sure that
we obtain a copy of that publication and send it to him or her."
Selina's staff at Lotus helps her tackle this appreciable amount
of workload. Though this enables her to take on more clients and
work more effectively, she still occasionally misses the good old
days when Lotus was just a one-man-show. "In the beginning,
it was only me doing all the planning, executing all the strategies.
Now, usually, I am just talking the talk with clients and taking
care of the business side, while my staff looks after the details."
Cleverly, Selina has so far refrained from joining any particular
camp, a tendency that is sadly predominant in Pakistan's fashion
and entertainment industries. "Why restrict myself?" she
postulates. "I'd rather let my work speak for itself. My office
is situated in Lahore while most of my work is either in Lahore
or Karachi. Even though I am not aligned with a certain group, people
still want to hire me."
As we wrap up our conversation, I ask her about her experiences
with London's prestigious Avalon PR. How does her work here differ
from what she did there? "In London, we were always expected
to maintain a stiff upper lip," she remembers. "I mean,
you could be face-to-face with the Spice Girls but you had to act
nonchalant about it. It was considered unprofessional to get worked
up over a celebrity. Here in Pakistan, it's okay to be effusive.
At the red carpet of Fashion Pakistan Week, I met Wasim Akram and
Shaan. I was very excited and it was okay for me to show that."
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