LONDON: A Pakistani-British citizen, who is a bus driver by profession, now proudly holds the title of an award-winning feature film director. What’s more Impressive is that the whole movie was shot on his smartphone with zero budget!
Asif Raja who drives buses in Huddersfield and is a local radio presenter shot a Bollywood-esque romantic thriller using a smartphone. The film was shot in a period of three months.
His movie is called Ehsaas (which in Urdu means ‘perceptiveness’) and was shot at locations including Outlane, Pole Moor and the Cow and Calf rocks, Ilkley.
He not only directed but wrote the script, he also acted in the film as the main lead.
“There is an actor in the movie – Mehmood Sultan – who has done work in Pakistan cinema movies and lives in Bradford”……I also used other local actors including Rafiq Butt, Abdul Shakoor, Khwaja Amjad, Tehmina, Kiran Khan and Fareed Butt,” said Asif Raja.
A resident of Paddock Wood, England, Asif also is a presenter at a local, Asian centric radio station.
According to a UK website Examiner, the film has received good feedback and has won two awards for best director and best actor presented by a local magazine.
“As a director and actor it has been a wonderful experience for me and I hope to take this further and do a bigger project in the near future…..There are not many opportunities for artists so I hope to cast local actors, musicians, score artists and film editors for my next project.”…..In future projects, I want to work with artists of any age, gender, from all communities and backgrounds to promote community cohesion.”
Last year he wrote, directed and acted in a stage play called Story of Every Home which was staged in Birkby outside Radio Sangam’s offices.
The full movie is due to be released in Pakistan and will eventually be available on DVD and later on YouTube, according to the report.
