Uzair Merchant, a production designer of Indian origin, is making waves in Hollywood. From working on the James Bond film Skyfall to creating the world’s first security NFT offering, Stardust, he’s done it all. The music video of Stardust has been filmed on an iPhone. The Free Press Journal caught up with him for an exclusive tête-à-tête.
Talking about his journey, Uzair shares, “It was a crazy start. I grew up and studied in Dubai. I started working in ad commercials when I was 17. When I was in university in the UK, I took up freelance work. Since my dad is an interior designer, I was around the design people always. So, I always had that art side and inclination towards designing, but I never liked interior designing. I liked films and didn’t know that I could study something like designing films.”
Uzair feels the Indian film industry has yet to recognise the significance of a production designer. “I look up to filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and James Cameron. I believe that if one should understand the visual side of it, then it’s easy to create. The film school Whistling Woods also reached out to me to teach production designing there, but I feel the value that a production designer adds to a film hasn’t reached in India yet. DOPs are much more valued,” he explains.
When further probed on his childhood memories of watching Bollywood films in Dubai, Uzair reveals, “I had seen tonnes of Bollywood films. I had seen adults weeping while coming out of theatres. In fact, when I was in university, I got an opportunity to work on Aamir Khan’s film Talaash, but I couldn’t pursue it since I had to clear my last year, but I worked on Skyfall after that, which was my first ever project. I have worked in Mumbai on a few commercials and Ekta Kapoor’s production house for a brief time too. I even wrote my dissertation on social realism in Indian cinema influenced by filmmakers like Satyajit Ray. It is way more than Hollywood for me. I am a fan of Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider, Kaminey and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black.”
Further spilling the beans on his music video Stardust, he avers, “Stardust just didn’t happen like this. I knew what I was making and, as a crew, where we were going. I started writing this song when I was in college. I have been directing for the last 10 years and producing ad commercials in Dubai under my production.”
On a parting note, he talks about his future projects. “I have been working on my TV show, Superman. Then the pre-production of Black Rose, another TV show, is on at the moment. Stardust is its soundtrack,” he concludes.
