Saqib Malik

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Saqib Malik (Urdu: ثاقب ملک) is one of the most established directors in Pakistan, known primarily for his avant-garde music videos and commercials. He has directed numerous successful music videos for many Pakistani pop acts, the more notable among them being Fuzon's Khamaj and Ali Azmat's Na Re Na.

1 History
2 Videography
3 Filmography
4 Citations
5 External Link

[edit] History

Born in 1966, Saqib grew up in Karachi, Pakistan where he received his earlier education. Later he moved abroad to study for a degree in Advertisement and Communications from USA.^[1] At the completion of his graduation, he shifted to his home city in 1988 amidst the sectarian riots that would devastate the city's state later. This didn't stop him from achieving his goal of becoming a director and he worked with an advertisement agency on a normal nine-to-five basis.

Working for almost seven years in the advertisement business, he took upon direction as a freelance director making commercials for various brands. 1990s brought a revival in the Pakistani music industry where young stars were emerging almost always in dire need of exposure. Saqib chose to work with Asim Reza on various projects that led them into directing music videos for these very artists. As a director duo, their first break came with the video for the hit single Mr Fraudiyey by the band Awaz. The video would later root the careers of the band Awaz, Aminah Haq and Tariq Amin.^[1] Saqib later worked for three years with Asim Reza after they decided to split and go their separate ways.

But while it seemed the nation was headed towards a new revolution in music and media in general, Saqib clinged on to making advertisement commercials rather than making more music videos. His inhibitions led him to believe that his art hadn't been properly furnished. His work with Asim Reza was mostly shadowed by the powerful charisma that Asim had and he lacked. He went his way making commercials for the sake of improving his stronghold over these very inhibitions and proving to himself that he excelled at what he did.^[1]

In 2001, Saqib served an experimental new-wave band named Rushk to come up with a music video for their song Behti Naar. The video depicted various taboos of the Pakistani culture like homosexual relationships, BSDM, etc., and portrayed them in a mild manner. The video became a cult classic, albeit the censor board ruled against the airing of the video on music channels. The controversy surrounding the video gave his career a further boost.^[1]

His recent endeavours included videos for the band Fuzon's song Khamaaj^[1] which stood neck-to-neck with Asim Reza's video for Mahi Ve sung by Faakhir Mehmood at the nominations for the Best Music Video at the 2004 Lux Style Awards (LSA) held in 2005.^[2] His video for Ali Azmat's song Na Re Na gained him an award at the LSA.^{[citation needed]}

After the success of Khamaaj, Fuzon selected Saqib on their next big project – a video featuring Urmila Matondkar from Bollywood beyond the border. Saqib worked with Pralad Kakar (a director from India) on the video and was since then attributed with being the first music video director to have worked with an Indian star. His next such venture would be a video for Salman Ahmad's song Ghoom Taana featuring Nandita Das, another Bollywood star. Ghoom Taana was written by both Saqib Malik and Asim Reza.^[3]

[edit] Videography

Track	Artist	Role	Released
Mr Fraudiyey	Awaz	Co-director (with Asim Reza)	1993
Behti Naar	Rushk	Director	2001
Dewaane^[4]	Fuzon	Co-director (with Pralad Kakar)	2003
Khamaaj	Fuzon	Director	2004
Na Re Na	Ali Azmat	Director	2006