INSTEP Magzine


instep profile Music's new visual messiah Bilal Lashari is the new video director in town, but he's quite a sensation already. The four videos he has made are captivating and they are as innovative as they are diverse. Bilal talks to Instep about the creative process and taking it further… By Aamna Haider Isani

Last year was a volatile year for entertainment; the industry virtually came to a stand still by October. But like everything corrosive, it unearthed some exceptional talent, especially in the line of music. While album launches were being delayed, concerts cancelled and the top line of video directors like Saqib Malik, Jami and Asim Reza were taking a long break from making videos, in stepped Bilal Lashari. With merely four music videos - Abrar ul Haq's 'Islamabad', Overload's 'Dhamaal', Jal's 'Sajni' and recently Atif Aslam's 'Hungami Haalat', Bilal brought back an artistic consciousness that had been invaded by videos of bands playing in old, demolished monuments. (Either that or incredibly macabre videos of young kids electrocuting themselves in a bath tub.)

Other than Zeeshan Parwez, who also raised the bar with thought provoking videos like Ali Azmat's 'Teri Perchaiyan' and Hashim's 'My Moment', Bilal Lashiri's work cropped up overnight, like a proverbial bean stalk. His videos were technologically sound and they were intelligently conceptualized. 'Islamabad' depicted Abrar as a US President in search of "Ishq"; 'Dhamaal' honed percussion with the wild movement of horses and an angry sea; 'Sajni' brilliantly retold the 'Beauty and the Beast' story whereas 'Hungami Haalat' simply blew one away with its rock mode. The videos were innovative and yet they were diverse. People were sitting up to take notice.

These are videos worthy of being nominated for any award. And yet amazingly, despite the maturity of thought, they stem out of a very young mind. 26 year old Bilal is a young undergraduate in Motion Pictures and TV, studying at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. "I've been traveling back and forth to get this work done," he spoke to Instep. Bilal took the backward route into video direction. While generally the best directors had moved from directing advertisements to music videos, Bilal began his journey with the creative instead of the corporate. "I just felt it's a good way to get your name out there," he said. "Eventually I will get into ads as well."

The "exhausting and sometimes frustrating process" was crammed into summer vacations and numerous trips to Pakistan. When in the US, he was also offered to assist Shoaib Mansoor in the making of Khuda Kay Liye in America. According to Bilal, "I was totally blown away by the script when I read it but I had to quit the film because of the delays it was facing." He decided to focus on music videos, polishing his skills while at it. Much to everyone's surprise, Atif's 'Hungami Haalat' was the first video he shot, almost two and a half years ago, though it was only recently released on TV. Bilal was traveling, Atif was inspired to write the song at an airport and somehow the whole concept came together that way.

'Hungaami Haalat' "Shooting 'Hungami' was a crazy and frustrating experience," remembers Bilal. "It was the first time I was working on 35mm and we had a moderate budget; the sponsors came in much later. But I did everything - even the shooting - myself. We went for the whole terrorism thing and brought in a bit of everything, including global warming. I had fun with effects and ended up throwing in a bit of everything I could. But it's not an experience I'd want to repeat." Confessing to being a bit of a control freak, Bilal adds that the experience just got a bit too much. As with most "control freaks", he does the direction, cinematography and post work as well. With 'Hungami', he even took up shooting. But the hard work paid off. Despite the video facing a two year delay in release, it won him a Best Music Video award at University. He got the same award, plus one for Best Cinematography, for 'Islamabad' as well.

'Islamabad' "I don't think 'Islamabad' was my best work," says Bilal, "but the Americans loved Abrar. They found the song so unusual. They are generally used to a very sanitized look and this mix really worked for them." It worked in Pakistan as well as people were extremely amused to see a skeletal 'Thriller' like portrayal of the Capital that is often alluded to as 'the city of the living dead.' The learning process continued and by the time Bilal shot 'Sajni', he according to him, "was no longer a control freak."

'Sajni' "I asked Neil Lisk - who had worked with Shoaib Mansoor on Khuda Kay Liye - to shoot the video and help with the cinematography. We had a really great budget and the group was easier to work with than Atif. In fact I'd love to work with them again. My job as a director is to allow others space for creativity and I could do that in 'Sajni'. It was teamwork." The maturity spoke for itself in the slick way the video was shot. Though the story, adapted from the fairy tale, wasn't quite original, the way the video was shot certainly was. Bilal cast an unconventional model - Juggan Kazim - in the role of Beauty and wove the story around love. 'Sajni' was as lyrical as 'Islamabad' was satirical

'Dhamaal' Then came Overload's 'Dhamaal' which was "the most difficult video to shoot." "Technically it was a different ball game and a whole lot more difficult. Though it apparently looks really simple, it wasn't. Performance videos are always tough to shoot on 35mm. Plus when it's an instrumental, the tempo is constantly shifting and you have to move with it. 'Dhamaal' was about simple, clean images. By then I really did want to get out of complicated imagery." Bilal is ready to head back to the states these days but the story, rather story telling, isn't over for him yet. He's already worked on Atif's next song 'Rabba' and is in talks with Ali Azmat for 'Gallan', which is the working title from a song from Ali's next album Klashnifolk. That's quite an exciting platter for a new comer. Bilal is extremely talented but he's also been lucky with the budgets his videos have gotten. It's bizarre, but all four of his videos have been sponsored by four different telecom companies: 'Hungami by LG', 'Sajni' by Wateen, 'Dhamaal' by Mobilink and 'Islamabad' by Telenor, though Bilal mentions that the LG sponsorship came much after 'Hungami' had been completed. But what's interesting is that many of the respective artists are also 'faces' of the telecom companies they have been sponsored by and it's the subsequent interest in promoting their brand ambassadors that inspires companies to dole out huge budgets for making and promoting these videos. It's a healthy trend, as long as it doesn't get carried away by the sponsor, as the Tulsi sponsored ads once did. "It's okay as long as the companies do not interfere with the creative process," adds Bilal. It's more than fine; it's fabulous, we think. It makes an artist's product more appreciable and it makes the whole process lucrative and beneficial for the industry. All this has convinced Bilal Lashari to return to Pakistan once his studies commence; he graduates in three months. He has been inspired and motivated by his experiences, though he is quick to add that some have been "frustrating". He also appreciates the path that has been caved by senior directors like Saqib, Jami and Asim. "They've paved the way for us with their boldness," he says. While at some point last year, when Pakistan's instability was at its peak, he had his doubts about coming back, now Bilal is convinced he wants to. And he beleieves the next step for him will be making a feature film in Pakistan. He seems like a doer, and since he has worked under Shoaib Mansoor's shadow, there's a good chance he just might be able to do so very soon.