Jaana hai Bollywood

Jaana hai Bollywood

Mohammad Ali Baig is a celebrity both at Hyderabad and at Bangalore. Hyderabad knows him as the son of eminent theatre personality, Qadir Ali Baig, and the grandson of celebrated polo player, Mirza Mehmood Ali Baig. In Bangalore, though, he is his own man: dashing producer/director of Odyssey Video Communications Ltd. Mumbai, which he visits often, has yet to really recognise him. However, with shooting for his feature film, Zameen Aasman, scheduled to start by January end, this might change soon.

This is his first feature film venture for the 31-year-old, who has made many nationally, as well as, internationally acclaimed ads, documentaries and short films. In fact, Baig started out with theatre productions and went on to join the Congress party’s in-house ad-agency, which explains a number of assignments on political campaigns and government-backed promotionals. His production house, Odessey, was set up 15 years ago and features the likes of Prahlad Kakkar and Kailash Surendranath, on its panel of film-makers. For someone with no formal training, (“I learnt everything on the job”), Baig has directed slickpromotional films for manyIT biggies, like Infosys, Hewlett Packard, Wipro and Motorolla.

Talking about the forthcoming film, the producer sounds both upbeat and confident. “Zameen Aasman is the reel adaptation of a real life story. It is to be directed by M S Satya, with Urmila Matondkar and Chandrachur Singh in the lead roles. The music score will be by the renowned Illayaraja,” he rattles off, revealing that there is a women-oriented film in the offing too.

And if he sounds slightly smug about the whole thing, well, that’s just his style. After all, the society pages of various publications featuring him at regular intervals. The reasons vary from his illustrious background and award-winning bouts, to his hobbies and dressing style too!

As for the awards, Baig’s short films have a habit of picking them up the latest being two Golden Asters for the 15-minute film, Rockumentary, which he picked up at the International Heritage Film Festival in Japan. Termed a “unique and captivating journey” by the festival jury, it won him the Best Director Award too.

Additionally, his television ad campaign against child labour, was shown at a special screening in Singapore, along with the works of Jim Meyer and Shekhar Kapur. With more than a dozen advertising awards and a few internationally acclaimed short films (shown on channels like Doordarshan, BBC, Discovery and Moscow Television) under his belt, it’s no surprise that he was chosen for the 1999 Indira Gandhi Award for Young Achievers, in the field of visual communications.

But like everyone else, all work and no play makes even Baig a dull boy, which might be the reason why he rolls up his designer sleeves for a ride to the polo grounds. And after being voted one of the top 20 celebrities in the country (by a national men’s magazine) and a three-page spread in La Dioce (the elite French men’s magazine), he’s sure proved that he’s not dull at all.