SAIF KIDWAI (FILM MAKER)

 

Early life

Saif ur Rahman Kidwai was born on January 29, 1975, in Delhi, India, to Azra Kidwai, a Sociology Teacher in Jesus & Mary College, Delhi and Sadiq Ur Rahman Kidwai, a renowned Urdu academic professor in Jawaharlal Nehru University. Saif Kidwai's paternal grandfather, Shafiq Ur Rahman Kidwai, was a freedom fighter, founder of Jamia Millia Islamia and a cabinet minister in Delhi’s first elected Assembly in 1951.
Saif discovered filmmaking when he was a teenager and got himself a job in a film company as a spot boy after finishing school at the age of 18. He attended college (Ramjas Delhi University) during the day and worked during the night.

He founded the theatre group of Ramjas College called ‘SHUNYA’ and restarted the Ramjas College cultural festival ‘MOSAIC’.

Career

1997
Earth 1947

After completing his graduation, Saif got an opportunity to work as the location assistant for the film, ‘Earth 1947’ directed by Deepa Mehta.

1998-2000

For the next 3 years, Saif Kidwai spent slogging in and out of film sets and learning the art of film production under the guidance of Iqbal Kidwai.

2000-2010

After doing feature films, documentaries, ads and television series in Delhi, Saif was convinced that films don’t need to be bound by established structures. He decided to build his film career in his hometown, Delhi.

His first such opportunity came to him as a job in the form of a television production trainee at Zee News. Here, Sanjay Pandey trained Saif in the fundamentals and techniques of television production. This was further polished and developed under the guidance of Shibani Sharma Khanna and Arun Thapar at NDTV.

Five years of solid television experience and profile earned Saif Kidwai a job offer at CNN-IBN to work on some Special Investigation and Special Projects. Saif Kidwai gained experience here under the guidance of Rohit Khanna and VK Shashikumar. This became the crux of his fictional stories and content when he decided to put a pause to his television career.

2010-2015

With the digital world rocking everyone’s lives Saif Kidwai couldn’t stay put within the framework of a job anymore. He quit his job on his 35th birthday and made a short film called Dilli NCR Ki Folklore. He tried building a startup around a concept of news creation and distribution. Having spent 10 years in a secure job Saif Kidwai tried hard to set up this business but failed. This is when he decided to take a plunge and check out Bollywood in

Mumbai. In 18 months - after one show (as a Creative Producer, Endemol India, Pilot Episode of Dial 100 on Star Network’s Life Ok), one behind the scenes (Executive Producer, Bbuddah Hoga Teraa Baap) and one short film (Taakat Ki Folklore)- Saif Kidwai had had enough.

2015-2017

India Today Television’s Sales department decided to set up a Branded Content desk. Saif was offered the job of setting up the creative and production of the Branded Content department. Here, for around 30 months, under the guidance of Rahul Kumar Shaw (Chief Revenue Officer, India Today Group) Saif learnt how to convert creative content into logistical data with perfection.

2017- 2021

Equipped with all that he had -experience and life savings- Saif took another plunge and invested everything in his first film Sanki Daroga. Everything that can go wrong with a first time filmmaker and film investor went wrong here. Around 5 days into shooting the film, it had to shut. Ravi Kishan who was playing the lead of this film and had been involved from day one of the shoot, entered the immensely chaotic scene and offered to produce the film.

This experience and the way in which Ravi Kishan played the hero in the reel and in real life taught Saif Kidwai one of the most important lessons of his life- Never fight insecurity with fear. Under Ravi Kishan’s guidance, training and care Saif Kidwai was now prepared for the next plunge.

M S DIGITAL CREATIVES

During the Pandemic and lockdown, fascination with the digital world took the driver’s seat for Saif Kidwai. M S Digital Creatives was registered as a proprietorship firm in June 2020 to explore and create content for digital consumption. In one year’s time MS Digital Creatives has collaborated with the finest of the established and new independent artists and created a bank of content- series on women issues, music and videos, short documentaries and fiction, feature films, corporate film training and workshops. The content will be launched soon on saifkidwai.com (a site under construction).

Influences

Films: Mughal E Azam, Sholay, Kaala Pathhar, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, Empire of the Sun, Johnny Gaddaar, Amar Akbar Anthony, Snatch, Parinda, Satya, Paan Singh Tomar, Jewel Thief.

Personalities: Amitabh Bachchan, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kishore Kumar, Bimal Roy, Manmohan Desai, Charlie Chaplin.

Books: Ramayan, Quran, Songs Of Gurus (Khushwant Singh), verses of Kabir and Khusro, Godfather (Mario Puzo), Sapiens (Yuvah Noval Harrari), What Gandhi Says About Nonviolence Resistance And Courage (Norman Finkenstien).

Poets: Mir Taqi Mir, Ghalib, Allama Iqbal, Akbar Allahbadi.

Beliefs: All Truth In My Life Is Fiction, and everything else is a lie | Never Fight Insecurity With Fear | For Solutions, Achievements and Success I trust my Failures the most.

Personal life

Saif is married to Humra Fazli. He has 2 children Kabir,17 years and Emaad, 14 years.