From Patna boy to Pakistani TV legend

In the dreary Indian TV landscape of saas-bahu soaps, the entry of Pakistani TV serials on Zindagi, owned by the Zee Entertainment Limited (ZEEL), was the proverbial breath of fresh air. The offering included Talkhiyan, one of Zindagi's most talked about serials, that dealt with the deep sense of pride men harbour in their ancestry and caste, usually at the cost of the women in the house. An adaptation of The God of Small Things, the Booker-winning novel by Arundhati Roy, it brought together the celebrated pairing of screenwriter Bee Gul and director Khalid Ahmad.

Ahmad, a legend in the Pakistani serial world, is an actor, director and teacher. Stepping out of his comfort zone of TV serials, Ahmad has now made a short film for ZEEL's ZEAL for Unity project, in which six Pakistani directors and six Indian directors have made individual projects to eventually showcase in film festivals and perhaps on TV. His movie, Laloolal.com is about a man named Laloolal who lives in a village in Pakistan that borders Rajasthan.

Not many know that Ahmad was born in Patna, and moved to Pakistan only in the 1970s. "I lived in the old Patna city till I was 11 years old, on the banks of the Ganges. We had a terrace from where one could gaze at the river and hear the fishermen sing, and look at the nearby shamshaan ghat. These were my strongest childhood memories," he says, adding that the family moved to a different part of Patna later, and he left the city when he completed his matriculation.

"In 1967, we moved to Dhaka, where I started playing the banjo and was quite influenced by the music scene. I also began with the Hawaiian guitar."

His family chose to stay back in India. Soon after his father passed away in the 1990s, his mother moved with him, but his sisters decided to stay back in India. "One of my sisters passed away 12 years ago in Kolkata, and another, two years ago in Jamshedpur," he says.

Ahmad was in Dhaka when he started dabbling in theatre. "In Karachi, I took to the stage as an extra while pursuing my engineering course," says the filmmaker, who has a masters from the University of California, trained as an engineer and taught at NED University, Karachi, for a while. Around this time, his interest in theatre grew strong enough for him to pursue theatre at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Today, apart from his work on TV, Ahmad is also the head of the dramatic studies department at Karachi's National Academy of Performing Arts and has taught voice and acting to generations of students.

Apart from Talkhiyan, he has directed several critically-acclaimed TV serials, including Firdous ki Dozakh and Pehchaan as well as the plays Naql-e-Makani and Badshahat Ka Khatma.

Few know that Ahmad is the uncle of Indian director Imtiaz Ali. When Ali took to directing, he says, Ali's mother, who is Ahmad's sister, and Ahmad's own mother blamed him for his influence on Ali.

"We discuss our work. For Laloolal.com, I spoke to him about filmmaking as I was new to it," he says.

In his view, ZEEL's endeavour in institutionalising the cultural exchange between India and Pakistan is laudable. "Many in India were appreciative of Pakistani writers, given the grammar and structure involved in our TV serials," says Ahmad. "I wish more of our TV serials find an audience in India, just like the Pakistani audience for Indian films."