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A MUSICAL BRIDGE

Dubai has become the venue of yet another Indo-Pakistan joint venture. This time it is two music videos shot at the city's scenic locations and on the sand dunes, the sea and the mountains. Indian pop singer, Thanda Thanda Pani's Baba Sehgal, who has just turned to directing, has

done the videos of two songs of Mishi Khan, Pakistan's popular actress and compere, who has just turned to singing. Mishi first song video, O Mere Mahiya, directed by Sohail Javed, was well received by the viewers and has been nominated for the Indus Music Awards, in the Best Debut category, to be presented on July 24. Her second song video, Karlain Hum Dosti, directed by Aamir Malik, was released two months ago. Both the videos were produced in Pakistan.

Through the Mishi-Baba Sehgal venture, this is the first time that music videos of a Pakistani singer have been directed by an Indian. Mishi is also the producer of the videos. A Dubai company, KEG, supported the production of the videos here.

Baba, whose father hails from Gujranwala in Pakistan, said that after singing and giving music for his songs for so long, he set up his company, Baba Sehgal Entertainment in Mumbai some four months ago.

"Media has become so vast these days that you can't restrict yourself to one of its fields. I am a recording engineer as well. I want to use my hobby as business by servicing the industry and by doing our own releases," Baba explained the rationale behind establishing the new company. The aim, he said, is to record and make music videos, for which there is a good market, and to do tie-ups to achieve these goals.

In Dubai, Mishi's first song, Aaja O Raja, a fast romantic, was shot on a Friday and the session lasted for 13-hours from 5am till 6pm in this hot end-June weather with shooting in the desert, on the creekside, on Shaikh Zayed Road, at the Fairmont Hotel, and while driving in the city. Ahmed Butt, Lux best model award winner, came from Lahore to play with Mishi. The cameraman and cinematographer, Vineet Sapro, was from India.

"We have shot the song in a modern style on good locations in the desert and in the city in a topless Wrangler. On seeing the video, people will not believe that it was done in one day," Baba said of the hard day out. Happy with the shooting of the first song and since every one was still in town, the team decided to do the second one on Sunday. Challi Re Challi, was a slow romantic song, for a change, and was shot in the desert, on the mountains and in the sea, in slow motion, since it was visualised by Baba to appear in the video as a dream. The two songs were selected out of Mishi's ten songs.

"Mishi is spending her own money on the videos. Being an artist, I understand how difficult it is to do so. With this production, we want to prove that we can do a good job," Baba, who has known Mishi for some time, told City Times after the shooting.

He has taken the recording with him to India for editing and hopes that the video will be ready in a month or so. "Mishi wants to play the videos on channels like Indus Music, The Musik, Geo, and MTV, Channel V, B4U and ETC, and I will try to help her wherever I can," Baba said.

Baba, who has performed in Pakistan's cities of Karachi and Lahore and would be performing again soon.

"I will be most happy if Mishi can benefit from our effort," Baba said. He expected the videos to be released in a couple of months, all depending on the negotiations with the music channels. With these new videos, Mishi's music album, Mahiya, will also be released soon by Sadaf Stereo, Pakistan. "Mishi has a good husky voice as a singer. She can sing all kind of songs. She needs Riaz (practice) and devotion," was the director's opinion of the singer.

Baba's new Punjabi album is scheduled to be released this month. Another album, in which an Arabic singer, a girl from Dubai, teams with Baba, who sings Bhangra in Hindi, will be ready in a month. Baba has sung and done music for three Punjabi songs in the film, Nalayaq, to be released in October. Film director Ram Gopal Varma, who has directed films like Bhoot, has asked Baba to give music for his film. It was a good experience for Mishi, specially working with an Indian team and she liked their approach towards work. "The videos have been professionally shot and I am confident that the end result will please the viewers," She said.

Mishi had selected an Indian team for her new videos since she had already done her two earlier videos with a Pakistani team, "I wanted my new video to look different," she said.

On Friday, the day of the shooting in Dubai, Mishi received a call from Baba just before 5 am telling her that they were ready and asking if she was ready as well to leave. At that time Mishi was still putting her things in the bag to take with her. "This shows how punctual they are." Mishi said. As a producer, Mishi was also running around making arrangements for the travel, stay and meals of the Indian team and several other small details. "Being a producer is not an easy job, she said wiping the sweat off her forehead as she returned from the travel agent's office at around 3pm to talk to the City Times.

It was not an easy task also to do the shooting outdoors in this hot weather, she said, adding that every time she had to change her clothes for a new shot, she had to re-do the make up herself. "I am serious about being a performer. I do not want to limit myself to one field. I want to be a singer, I want to be on the stage, I want to do acting and I want to make my vidoes. I want to try my hand at everything as a performer," Mishi said enthusiastically.

More information can be had on www.mishikhan.com.