Aeyaz
“My Mom is a home maker, Dad is a retired production manager. Dad worked all his life in Dubai with a food stuff company. Both have now settled back in India.”
“I grew up in Dubai during the 90s when the city was not as big as it is today. Much before the downtown and Burj Khalifa was built and when the Dubai World Trade Centre was the tallest building here. Even though it was Dubai, we have lots of Indian expats living here so I enjoyed almost everything an Indian kid would get access to. Starting from gully cricket, having fun on the streets of Meena Bazar to watching Bollywood movies with friends etc. It was fun back in those days.”
“The majority of my schooling was at the ‘New Indian Model School’ in Dubai. I always had interests in multimedia and arts, but back in those days (year 2000) there were not many colleges teaching multimedia or any kind of post production work. So I had to go with the trend at the time, engineering. I chose to major in “Electronics & Communication” because I thought that was best option from what was presented to me. Back in those days, while other boys read their academic books, I spent my time in the library looking for books related to multimedia and creativity. I was kind of a multimedia guy in college, designing their websites, brochures, logos and every possible thing I could do with a computer, all the while whilst studying engineering! I completed my degree at the ‘University of Calicut’, India.”
“I was an average guy in terms of academics. So completing my engineering degree was kind of wrestling but wasn’t that difficult. I managed to pass all my exams on time and from there I never looked back to Engineering. Although I was learning something that I was not at all interested, my university life were the best days of my life.”
“My Parents are awesome, they were very supportive of me. Somehow my Dad realized the creative industry did not have much exposure to the public (back in 2004 after my collage) and landing on a good job would not be that difficult as there would not be too many others going for the same job. Dad always knew I was not interested in working in any other industry so I could easily chase my passion.”
“I always wanted to get into the media and creative industry. In fact I have never even searched for a job in another industry. Even though my Bachelor in Engineering could get me a cool job easily, I can’t imagine myself sitting in a corporate office and doing a regular day job. So I started as a web designer, then went into editing and compositing, then to 3D animation and VFX. And now having about 13 years of experience in the post production industry, I’m trying my hands on filming. I’m enjoying it so far.”
“I started my professional career with Nirvana Digital in Dubai Media City as an animator. From there I moved to Dejavu FZ LLC in 2007, at that time Dejavu was a startup company which has grown to one of the most respectable and well known film production companies in the entire middle east. I too grew with the company. I’m currently the head of CGI department here. So, in short, post production is my bread and butter but I am slowly trying my hands on filming and in the production side.”
“I just can’t imagine myself doing anything else. Whilst I am the head of CGI here at Dejavu, I am slowly shifting to the film production side. I’m really enjoying it. I am really settled here in Dubai, I have my beautiful wife and 2 young boys, I love spending time with family. As far as the future is concerned, Let’s see what is kept in the bag for me.”