A discipline of Maharaj Ghulam Hussain Kathak, Fasih-ur-Rehman has been carrying on the legacy of the great Kathak maestro through sheer hard work, self-discipline and dedication for the last 25 years.

How do you see life?

I feel life is the way you see and take life to be. Life is what you want to do with it and if you get to do what you love and your intention is true, then that is what life is all about. Intention something, not necessarily in the field or arts, but in whatever you do if you are true to it – that is what life is all about.

The Jami we know from various commercials and videos is broody, elusive and has some phenomenal projects to his credit, like Pal Do Pal, Chaye Chaye, Ankhiyan, Chal Dil Mere, Dhanni, Anjaane and many more. The Jami we don’t know is the man, who likes to speak up his mind, digs movies, is laid back. We take a peek on the other side of this director’s fence.

How does it feel to be known as the best video director in Pakistan?

I’m trying to enjoy it. Because when you’re at the top, people want you to fall down, which is why I get scared of being called that. But honestly speaking, we are not doing that well. Abroad, there are so many good short films being made by the kids. We’re doing commercials to run the kitchen, making music videos, and we try to balance both, which is why we try not to sell our souls in music videos. We should do justice to the song. In commercials, the clients will listen to you to an extent. Like in the Indigo commercials, they’ve given a very free rein, but you know that you have to sell something.

What is on your mind?

Umar, family, work, work, work!!

If you had to make an apology, what would it be for and for whom?

For being lazy… to everyone I work with.

Where’s the best place to be?

Home with Umar and crabbing with friends.

What have you enjoyed the most in your three-and-a-half years of working life - acting, modeling or direction?

I don’t enjoy catwalk modeling. I had a very different impression of it earlier, but now that I have done it. I felt like beef in a cattle show. I admire the women who can model in this society. As for acting and directing, both have their own appeal. Normally, I like to work under pressure and my best work has been under stress. But, what I hate is acting and directing at the same time. I am a director’s actor and when I land up acting for my own plays. I feel at a loss. Handling a series like ‘Ambulance’ every week for instance, I know that I can always fall back on Angeline Malik if one of my actors doesn’t show up. But, it’s a matter of convenience - I know I won’t be able to perform.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan said here Sunday he would love to visit Pakistan.

“I would love to go to Pakistan as soon as I can as my father’s family is from Peshawar,” Khan said at a press conference.

He would also like to see better ties between India and Pakistan, he was quoted as saying by IANS news agency.

“I’m a monkey who dances to the tunes of the director and the writer. Blessings from God and working with good directors has helped me a lot.”

Khan also said acting helped him vent his passion.

It’s been 25 years since the fashion industry was first introduced to the phenomenon known as Imran Qureshi. To mark this turning point, we decided to give a bit of a twist to the obligatory interview: we had Imran interviewed by his own choice of journalist. That might not be how most people know famous fashion designer Rizwan Beyg as, but he was in actuality the perfect choice. Not only has he been a much-admired columnist of an English weekly, but he also happens to be great friends with our anniversary boy, and that is how an otherwise straightforward interview turned into a friendly chitchat session.

He sits at the table with his soft brown eyes and floppy hair and I look carefully for gray but there is none. He claims to be 47 but the face and slight build belie his claim. 25 years later Imran Qureshi is still very much a force to contend with and as the founding father of choreography in Pakistan is very much a part of the who’s who in fashion.

Music has a greater influence than cricket, when it comes to improving Indo-Pak relations, believes Faisal Kapadia, lead vocalist of Pakistani band Strings. “In cricket one team wins and the other loses, while in the exchange of music concerts, it’s the audience that wins ultimately,” says he. Faisal alongwith Bilal, the lead guitarist, make up the band. Many a time they have performed live in India.

What’s the band’s take on the controversies of lip syncing, of late doing the rounds in India recently? “Often we are asked to do so by organisers, specially for shows on TV channels,” says Bilal. But he feels it is a crime to lip sync in a live concert. “Given a choice nobody would want to fool the audience,” he says.

Two years ago Arooj Aftab was a middle-class Pakistani teenager living her life according to plan: She was working studiously under the watchful gaze of her parents to finish a two-year advanced-level degree in math and economics, and planning a sensible career in accounting.

At the same time, Aftab was pursuing an interest that was not at all part of the well-established cultural framework. She was teaching herself to play the guitar. As if this weren’t radical enough, Aftab began writing her own songs. Forbidden by her father to enter a professional recording studio, Aftab did what any self-respecting Muslim girl determined to liberate herself from thousands of years of gender inequality would do: She learned how to use computer software to record and mix her own music.

Listening to Pakistani Sufi singer Abida Parveen has often been described as a divine experience, but the singer says she often hopes that rulers in India and Pakistan would listen more carefully to her message of peace.

“In Sufism, there is only peace,” Parveen said. “I have always believed that music and the arts is the best way to achieve peace.

“When I sing, I sing of peace, of harmony and culture.” Often called the heir to the legendary Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Parveen is today perhaps the world’s most renowned Sufi singer.

1. What is on your mind?

Designs, clients, shops and now fabric.

2. If you had to make an apology, what would it be for and for whom?

Not applicable. My motto is, ‘Think twice before you speak’.

3. Where’s the best place to be?

Rome.

4. What scares you most?

Failure.