Faizan Haqquee

Faizan Haq was born to a literary family in April, 1979. As the grandson of the great lexicographer and poet Dr. Shanul Haq Haqqee, Faizan was exposed at an early age to the joys of the mushaira (Urdu: the north indian tradition of poetry recitals) and given the sheer breadth of his talents as a public speaker and writer, by his thirteenth year it was clear to all who knew him, that he would become a playwright, actor, voice artist and filmmaker. Faizan's family ran into financial troubles by the late nineties and this kept him from attending film school in America. However, he confidently began to work towards his goals, by getting a job as Locations Assistant on the film 'Jinnah' - by Jamil Dehlavi (Director) and Dr. Akbar S Ahmed (Producer) - a major film that was made to commemorate the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, in 1997. After realizing that Faizan had seen all the great films, read every book on the subject of filmmaking and was extremely passionate about the process, director Jamil Dehlavi included him in his own core team, as 2nd A.D. From then on, Faizan Haq committed himself to television, considering it the last stepping stone to filmmaking. Whilst he set about hosting Pakistan's first Top Ten music chart show (Music Channel Charts, later renamed Video Countdown) on state television (Pakistan Television - at the time Pakistan's only channel), he also signed up for a job as Concept-writer at BBDO/Manhattan International, which was followed by a four year stint as Creative Manager/Assistant Director of commercials at Ogilvy & Mather/Interflow Communications - during which he had the chance to work under the guidance of such iconic names as Rohail Hyatt (producer of music and television shows - including the international hit Coke Studio), Jamshed Mehmood aka Jami (director of films and commercials), Bilal Maqsood (director of music videos and commercials) and Tahir Khan (advertising and television giant). As the presenter of Pepsi's mega-budget 'Ask For More', 'Inside Edge' and 'World Cup Deewane' TV shows Faizan became a household name in the country. He also appeared in two Pepsi commercials, alongside pop sensation Haroon and model Iman Ali. By 2001, private television channels began to get broadcast licenses in Pakistan. Faizan had become frustrated with advertising and joined Indus Music, Pakistan's first music channel, as VJ and Producer. Along with superstar VJ Anoushey Ashraf, he became one of the most watched people on television and his dazzling intellect shone through such programs as Videopick and Me, Myself and Faizan! In 2006 Indus Music was bought over by Viacom and became MTV Pakistan, of which Faizan and Anoushey remained the male and female faces, alongside rising star Mahira Khan (actress: Bol) and the already established Wiqar Ali Khan (of ARY Music fame). During this time Faizan began to host Pakistan's equivalent of the Oscars, the Lux Style Awards and also became a jury member for the music categories. He has hosted the awards a record four times to date. He has also twice hosted Pakistan's equivalent of the Nobel Prize ceremony, the Engro Excellence Awards. At MTV in 2007, Faizan was given the chance to fulfill one of his dreams - a travelogue series 'Paris to Paris' that would take him from the top of France to the bottom of Italy and back, over a period of 35 days - singlehanded as host, cameraman, guide and editor. Along the way he attended the Avignon Theater Festival, visited the Ferrari factory in Maranello, the Pagani factory in Modena - including an interview with Horaccio Pagani and a road test of his Zonda F supercar) and interviewed the engineering students at University of Modena who had won that year's Formula Student single-seater championship (also drove the car they had developed to compete in 2008). The 13-episode 'Paris to Paris' was a hit. And it was followed by 'Urgentina - An Argentine Adventure' in 2009-10, which was an even greater achievement, for which Faizan singlehandedly travelled 8000 miles across Argentina, over 72 days. During this time Faizan was promoted as Creative Head at MTV Pakistan, a postion he maintained for almost two years. In this period he also wrote and hosted a program 'Cinema Classics' in which he would review regional, Hollywood and art-house films from the past and present. Faizan also wrote film reviews for Khaleej Times' Weekend magazine. Faizan Haq is also a major voice-over artist in Pakistan, known especially for his documentary and commercial voice-overs for almost every major brand and product category, including Coca-Cola, Colgate, Ufone, WWF, ICI Dulux, China Mobile, Bank Al-Falah, UBL, Nokia, Standerd Chartered Bank, Total, Caltex, PARCO and Engro, among hundreds of others. In 2011 Faizan quit MTV and joined the hugely popular HUM Television Network, as Creative Head of Style 360 - Pakistan's only fashion and lifestyle channel. There he became known for his quirky scripts, presentation of numerous fashion weeks and his MTV-inspired graphics sensibility. Faizan was able to re-package the channel towards its most successful period, during which it came to own all the major fashion shows in the country. In late 2012, Faizan Haq quit his job at Hum TV Network to write movie screenplays and focus on his broadened voice-over work, which now included documentaries and commercials from neighbouring India, as well as to do a bit of acting, as he had done in the previous year's film 'Josh' by director Iram Parveen Bilal. Currently he is working on a film 'New Life', which will be his first feature as writer/director