Saad Asif Sheikh (born 20 December 1994) formally known as Saad Sheikh is a Pakistani film and musical theatre director and a choreographer. He is best known as a CEO and founder of Pakistan's largest art space The Colony Lahore. His prominent work as a director includes Kolachi, Pakeezah, Your Ex Lover is Dead, Laila Majnu.
CAREER
Sheikh is also the founder of Pakistan's largest musical theatre company Sway Dance Project which has produced 100+ shows domestically and internationally. He started a choreography exhibition titled Sway With Us in July 2019 which has been a launching platform for multiple performers, choreographers, stage directors, stylists and introduced a number of actors in the Pakistani art fraternity. After doing more than 30 volumes of the show, Sheikh now aims to curate Sway With Us all around the world with his homeground being Lahore and Berlin.
Sheikh has been highlighted as the man who introduced a new movement to the Pakistani entertainment with the theatrical cinema technique and the cinematic theatre technique. His theatrics gained him populariuty among international brands Havel, Coke, Pepsi, Nestle, Oppo, Samsung for their corporate events which further brought him to designing the opening for Lahore Fashion Week for Pantene.
His work for Coke Studio season 14 gained him success that featured him on the cover of Papperazi Magazine and Sunday Magazine for his contributions to art in Pakistan. His live curation gained nationwide viewership for directing the opening ceremony for Pakistan Super League which was the second most viewed event in the world after Indian Premier League. He later went on directing live performances for Lux Style Awards with a huge line up of musicians giving tribute to the pop star Nazia Hassan.
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Sheikh has worked with various international companies and fashion brands as a director and a choreograper for television commercials. His recent work as a choreographer for VUSE gained a lot of attention by the critics classifying it as the best work he has produced.
Television
Sheikh has worked as a production designer for Khoosat Film's hit television show Akhri Station (The Last Station) which was his first and last show according to him. He bid farewell to TV even after the show's success sharing on various platforms on how the narratives of Pakistan Television were not coherent with his ethos and lack of freedom of telling a story made him feel very robotic and not an artist.
Controversy
His directorial fashion campaign for a brand DYOT came under fire with the fashion film gaining 3 million views over night about girls dancing in Anarkali Bazaar, Lahore. The critics considered it to be of bad taste. The right wing considered it to be morally wrong and unislamic due to which Sheikh recieved a lot of backlash even death threats. The subject became a talk of every news channel from Pakistani networks of late night debates to BBC. The backlash resulted in the brand to take down the fashion film and Sheikh did not give out any public statement. After taking time to cool things off he mentioned in one of his interviews that he was glad to make the video because it showcased the Pakistani hypocrisy. He added that the same people who were criticising him on the film were the ones offering him more work to do the same with their brand because virality was just starting in Pakistan. He further added, that the people of Anarkali were a lovely audience while we were shooting the dance, it was the Pakistani elite who just couldn't see happy dancing women.
GALA
His work came under fire again in 2020 for his choreography for an advertisement of a famous cookie brand Gala by LU. The backlash resulted in various comedy skits being made on the advertisement. The add film remained viral on twitter for days with the right wing claiming dance to be immoral. Pemra (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulation Authority) had banned the advertisement after a succesful two day run on national TV considering it as a misleading product description which resulted another national debate weather the authories have the right to ban anything and take away the freedom of expression which kept the add still trending on twitter. Sheikh mentioned in a podcast 'it's just people dancing guy's, take it easy. People are talking about this today, they will talk about something else tomorrow. People will talk because thats what they do, I will dance because that's what I do.