WAHID ANAM

Wahid Anam is a young drama director in our country who has made a place for himself in a very short time. It's truly surprising to see what he has achieved in only two and a half years. It's also surprising to know that Wahid didn't even study in this field of work but is actually a business graduate from USA. Star Showbiz caught up with him recently to learn about his activities and plans.

Why did you choose this profession despite studying business management?
I was always fascinated by films and the way they were made. When I was little, I thought it was done with magic because I had no rational way of explaining the sudden changes in scenery, clothing, dialogues etc. However, as I grew up, I couldn't really pursue this dream as I was busy pursuing my parent's dream. So I did my Bachelors in Business Management at Baruch College, New York and was working in Real Estate. However, when I was planning on coming to Bangladesh, I was wondering on what to do for a living here and I decided to finally chase my own dream and get into production work. I always felt I was creative and I felt that I have the ingenuity required to be successful in this field of work.

Why start with dramas instead of movies?
Honestly, drama was a good place to begin. The best way to make people like what I do is to understand their mindset, see what works and what doesn't, and nothing offers more lessons on this matter than drama production for television. I wanted to see if I had the capacity to hold the audience for 60 minutes or more and if had the capability to convey my story accurately and effectively to my audience. Because I had such a big list of things to achieve, drama was the best place for me to begin.

Has the Meril-Prothom Alo Director Award made any impact in your life?
Definitely! That prize has proven to me that the effort I had put into all my works in trying to understand the mindset of the people and win them over was worth it! However, I do not allow that prize to fill me with too much pride, because too much pride can bring about arrogance and thus affect the quality of my work. I don't want that. I want to keep on going and keep on improving because this work is my passion. I always strive to be humble and that will not change.

With so many channels and dramas already out there, how did you plan to infiltrate this crowd?
My objectives aren't about dealing with the competition at all. My main objective was self-improvement. I have tried from day one to improve my knowledge, my creativity and avoid any kind of weird politics or bad influences etc. I figured that if I work hard enough and if I can improve my good points high enough, my work will be noticed. It's absolutely true, that in the modern age there is an unusually high number of channels. To come out of it all and be recognized is something truly difficult and I thank the Almighty ALLAH for helping me through all my hard work.

Many drama directors don't do well in filmmaking. Why do you think that is?
It must be made very clear that making drama and film requires different skill sets. The idea of making films isn't new to me as I have been playing around the idea since last year. When I made the drama “Dhoa” last year, I was trying to inject an essence of film but keep it at 60 mins to see if I could do it or not and how people would react to it. I was very happy when the general audience and even the people who worked with me on that project said that this should have been made into a film instead of a drama. I wanted to see if I could replicate the situation by trying to inject this film essence on another project but this time, it would be 80min, “Paari”.  This one caused an even bigger stir as the top directors in the country such as Amitabh Reza and Rashed Zaman called me in and personally said that “Paari” should have been a movie. I made another drama with this same film type formula called “Chinno” for this Eid and through these 3 works, I have been preparing myself to enter the world of filmmaking and now that I have gotten confirmation from all the top directors as well as the audience and my co-workers, I am confident that I can do it.

Bangladeshi Film Industry was once flourishing, but not anymore. What in your opinion is wrong in the industry?   
The current problem, in simple terms, is that we can't churn out good films right now. I think the reason is a lack of good script writers. The true soul of a film is its story. If that is flawed, then it doesn't matter how much money and effort you put into it. The number of good writers in this country just isn't enough for the number of films that pop up. The problem is that most directors start writing the story even though it may not be their specialty. There is also a lack of creativity in our industry as many films and even their posters are copies of Hindi, English and Tamil films. Other than these issues, I honestly don't see any other problems because our country has great actors who are dedicated to their work, great locations, cheap labor etc. With the amount of benefits that we have, if we can start using good stories, our movies would be top class.

Now that you are entering the filmmaking world, what is your motivation?  
I am not interested in just making money. I don't want to make a film that just “did well.” Whatever film I do, it has to be a blockbuster. It has to win people's hearts. I hope this isn't coming off wrong. This isn't overconfidence, but rather determination because the concepts I have in my mind for my films are derived from my understanding of the people's mindsets. So for my films to fail would mean my own failure and I am not going to let that happen.
Tell us a little bit about the film you plan to start with.

The inspiration for this film came in an unexpected manner. I was mentally prepared to do something else but then one day, this man on my Facebook friend list asked me to make a film about the recent launch sinking. He was so adamant that he was willing to sell his car in order to fund the project. I wasn't really looking forward to the idea because not only would it be hard to shoot in our country, but the costs would be tremendous so I turned him down, but for some reason the idea stayed with me, stuck in my head. I put up a status on Facebook that I would be shooting a film on launch capsize and news of it spread fast. Now the story will be vaguely reminiscent of Titanic, but that movie was ultimately a love story. What I want to do is bring to life the real issue and the emotional turmoil it puts on people. I don't plan focusing on a hero or a heroine in this movie as I wish to capture 2-3 groups of people and tell their story from the moment they set foot on the launch until the sinking. I want it to invoke the emotions of people from all walks of life.

Are you planning on quitting drama completely in favor of filmmaking?
In manner of speaking, yes. I will not be completely leaving drama, but I will do very few of them as my main focus is filmmaking now. Maybe one or two a year. Not more than that.

What advice do you have for people hoping to start on their own journey into filmmaking?
I was a beginner too not too long ago. And I was too focused on the technical side of things. In filmmaking, that really doesn't matter that much. What you should focus on is your story or script. If that is good, it will be a hit regardless of what equipment you may use because if your story is good enough to connect with people, they won't really care about the rest of it. And a personal advice I would give is to work with good actors. The reason for that is that if you hire good actors, then you can concentrate on your job as a director and worry about the story and how to present it. If you hire subpar actors, then your time will be spent on checking and correcting their acting mistakes which will divert your attention from storytelling.