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This Lucknow lad is all about being creative
Love for photography made Lucknow lad Adnan Ali take up films as a lifetime profession. After completing his intermediate, Ali left for Mumbai to try luck in the industry. After eight years, today he is all geared up to direct his first feature film in the city of nawabs.
Talking about his initial journey, Ali said, “After reaching Mumbai I assisted in a number of film projects and directed several short films and documentaries. And my latest short film ‘Arbaeen: The World’s Largest Gathering’ is doing great on several international platforms and has been selected for film festivals in the US, the UK, Iraq and Iran.
The young writer-director is now looking forward for his latest screening in Lucknow. As his short film is doing the round at various festivals across the world, Ali is keeping his fingers crossed for the response.
Talking about the subject of his film, he said, “In Arabic ‘Arbaeen’ means 40th day of mourning in respect of the deceased, here it’s for Prophet’s grandson Imam Hussain and his family members who were killed in the war of Karbala in 680 AD. The film captures the essence of Arbaeen also known as Walk of Peace that typically starts from Najaf (Iraq) and ends with the pilgrimage converging at the Holy Shrine of Imam Hussain in Karbala. The event every year witnesses one of the largest gatherings on the planet and last year the count was more than a 40 million. This march is not just holy for Shia Muslims but for people of other religions too. I have shot the film over a period of three years and have a voiceover by DJ Akbar Sami”
Earlier, Ali has been associate director for films ‘The Dead End’ and ‘Alif’. And also assisted ‘Dream Girl’ director Raaj Shaandilyaa for Sanjay Dutt starrer film ‘Bhoomi’ and was creative producer for ‘Massab’ and ‘Nakkash’.
Currently Ali has set his eyes on two projects ‘Coal Mines of Jharia’, a documentary, and his directorial debut feature film ‘Patangbaaz’. He is pitching to production houses for his fulllength film debut, “Patangbaaz is a feature film but in an artistic zone. I have extensively researched on the passion of kite flying in the city of Lucknow for many years and so I weaved a story covering the sport, thrill, passion and negative aspects of it. It’s an exciting story which I want to shoot by this year end,” he adds.
Ali completed his studies from SKD Academy and then his BSc from Shia College. He is passionate about reading and writing and has also completed his own book of Urdu poetry ‘Dil Fareb’. “I dabble between both commercial and art projects as I am highly influenced by legends like Satyjit Ray, Guru Dutt and Kamaal Amrohi in Indian film industry and Akira Kurosawa, Christopher Nolan and Quetin Tarantino in Hollywood.”
His parents wanted him to become a doctor but his heart was always in the creative field to which they too surrendered and provided him with all the right exposure as he travelled to various countries to study film making and world cinema. “While learning cinema and screen writing, I attended various films and literature festivals which helped me understand different kinds of cinema, music and cultures,” he said.
While learning cinema and screen writing, I attended various films and literature festivals which helped me understand different kinds of cinema, music and cultures
ADNAN ALI DIRECTOR