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A true-blue Hyderabadi
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Successful ad filmmaker Mohammed Ali Baig speaks on Hyderabad, his career, and inspiration
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Mohammed Ali Baig: He never left the city
YOU CAN take Mohammad Ali Baig out of Hyderabad, but you cannot take Hyderabad out of him. "I never left the city," the successful ad filmmaker says with a smile. Three hundred ad films, including the phenomenal Aditya Birla ad (Taking India to the world), 18 documentaries and numerous prestigious awards later, Baig insists, "Even though I moved to Bangalore and worked with Odyssey for seven years, and now for the past three years I have set shop in Bangkok with Cineworks India, I am a Hyderabadi at heart. My staff is Hyderabadi, my cook is from Hyderabad — in fact, friends say I have created a mini Hyderabad in Bangalore."
"And I keep coming here, I have clients here and, anyway, this is home — the city is an addiction," he says, stressing that "Hyderabad has tons of - attitude, character, identity, chutzpah, whatever. When you see a city like New York or Sydney, you realise it is easy to grow a New York anywhere but it is impossible to grow a Venice, Jerusalem or a Hyderabad."
"Hyderabad is the oldest cosmopolitan city. We have had Telugus, Persians, Muslims, Arabs, Syrians and Africans living in harmony forever. The founder, Quli Qutub Shah, was a dreamer, a philosopher, a lover and, above all, a poet who wrote in Telugu and Persian — that set the template for the city's character."
Welcome changes
For Baig, the changes in the city "are welcome to a certain extent. Like any other city, Hyderabad is growing, but it hurts if the city's identity gets corrupted. Look at a city like Jerusalem. The buildings from time immemorial have been in limestone. There is a ruling that any new architecture should be in limestone so the outward look is uniform. We should look at something like that. It would be perfect if corporate houses would take over the renovation and preservation of heritage sites. For the corporate, it would be a drop in an ocean as far as funds go and, at the end of the day, the buildings would be in good shape and the corporates would get the all-important mileage."
Creativity sans caffeine
For an advertiser, Baig presents an extraordinarily tidy appearance — where is the long hair, caffeine induced bug eyes and creatively surly demeanour?
"I have worked with the best brains in the industry and most of them are well turned out and do not depend on nicotine or the stronger stuff for stimuli. I have never felt the need for trappings. I did all the stuff a teenager would do and then somewhere along the way responsibility kicked in," he says.
Feature films are definitely not Baig's next stop. "I do not have the temperament to make a feature film. An ad film is the director's baby, not a trip like it is for a feature filmmaker. An ad film is message oriented and entertaining, not entertainment," he says.
"There are 60 to 70 departments that the filmmaker coordinates to achieve the objective of moving the product off the shelf. And even if you put your heart and soul into the ad film, if the product does not move, then you have failed. You cannot say the star did not perform or the music was bad or the audience do not understand. The bottom line is your strategy failed and you did not channelise your creativity properly," says Baig.
Baig attributes his larger-than-life aspirational worldview to his father, Qadir Ali Baig, Hindustani theatre's most famous playwright, producer, director and actor. "I never had to look outside for inspiration. When I was younger, I imitated my father and now I try to emulate him. If I can reach close to half of what he did, it would be an achievement." And with the Golden Asters and Grand Prix nominations, Baig seems steady on course.
MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER
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