Sheikh Amer Hassan is a fashion graduate from the prestigious London College of Fashion and Bournville College of Art in England. Now living between Karachi, Lahore and London, he is one of the pioneers of fashion in Pakistan and famous as a designer, socialite and a social worker

I learnt so much about Jinnah during the making of my film Jinnah, the man of style shown on Indus Television on August 14, as my special gift to Pakistan and to our nation on its 61st birthday. It took me exactly eleven years to collect all the material for my research that left everyone who saw it completely intrigued and enlightened with facts and information. I also felt that Mohammed Ali Jinnah had to be reintroduced as a modern man with vision and integrity. He lived only a few decades ago, not a million years and the wayhe has been portrayed to us is as if he lived centuries past. For God’s sake, he was a real man who is a perfect ideal for every Pakistani to follow. Almost everything about him has been from us. The truth had to be shared with everyone; these things have never been shown before only because we have been kept deprived about the real facts deliberately over the years and also kept distant from the great man himself. I cannot understand why it is so, but as I started my research, so much became apparent. Reasons started becoming more obvious, from his personal elitist self to his liberal philosophy. It is all way too different to what is actually being done to our country.

Forget the behind-the-scenes drama, the Zee Cine Awards in Dubai last weekend truly rocked. More than anything else, it made a genuine effort to cement the Indo-Pak relations further, which have been on an upswing in the recent times. Simply put, Bollywood and Lollywood were akin to the ambassadors of peace that night.

Hosting a majestic show not in India, not in Pakistan, but in a third country (Dubai, U.A.E.) and assembling the biggies of Bollywood (Big B, Dharmendra, SRK, the Roshans, Preity Zinta, Urmila, Sushmita Sen, Saif Ali Khan, Randhir and Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapur, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi) and Lollywood (Reema, Resham, Jawed Sheikh, Umar Sharif) was an effort in the right direction and the management of Zee deserves bouquets for it.

Yousaf Salahuddin’s Haveli oozes cultural magnificence on this cold wintry evening. An unassuming façade, which could easily be missed from the road, opens into a wonderland of history and tradition. Cradled in the glory of the brilliantly lit-up Fort, it basks in the wonders of two worlds: the traditional, which encourages the use of old oil lamps in a power breakdown as opposed to a generator and the modern, which inspires him to build a comfortable living area in his bedroom and bathroom both. His rooftop springs color for Basant and his basement has become the breeding ground for many well-known musicians today. His courtyard is open to public, whether to host a mohallah wedding or shoot a Zille Huma music video. And he’s incomparable as a host, the courtyard becoming an impressive welcome mat to dignitaries from all over the world-Mick Jagger, Madhu Jaffery, Aamir Khan and Boney M included. Yousaf has led many celebrities to stardom, especially musicians and though he as won a bit of inevitable infamy on the way, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Mian Salli embodies the Power of One.

Although Farhan Akhtar had scripted his debut film DIL CHAHTA HAI, his next film – LAKSHYA – won’t be scripted by the talented director, but by his father, writer Javed Akhtar. The reason? “That’s because the idea is dad’s,” Zoya Akhtar, Farhan’s sister, reveals, “When dad bounced off the idea of LAKSHYA to Farhan, he liked it immensely and that’s how dad decided to pen the script.”

Meanwhile, LAKSHYA is all set to roll in April with non-stop shooting. The final cast is Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, Sushant Singh and Om Puri.

Karishma and Kareena Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, Shushmita Sen, Sanjay Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Rishi Kapoor and Neeto Singh, Yash Chopra, Rakesh Roshan, Mahesh and Pooja Bhatt are just some of the Bollywood giants who have been invited by their Lollywood counterparts to spend this Basant in the city.

Most of these actors already have a Pakistani visa and others were in the process of getting one, said film director and writer Asif Ali Pota. He said the proposed programme includes a night at the Lahore Fort, which will be recorded by Prime Television, UK, and a dinner in Karachi hosted by the designer BG.