ADVERTISING EXCEPTIONALITY

Award winning Ad Filmmaker and Managing Director of RED dot Multimedia Ltd, Gazi Ahmed Shubhro has had a life full of surprises. Today he stands as one of the most popular directors in the country, when it comes to ad films.

Shubhro studied at BAF Shaheen, Dhaka and Notre Dame College, prior to moving to Arkansas to study Business Administration in University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. "I came back to Bangladesh before completing my degree, and started a restaurant, after which I joined a buying office," says Shubhro. 

"While I was working there, I joined a band called K-OZ. I met with the band Miles who were looking for someone to direct their music video for the Indian television channel Taara," says Shubhro. Somehow, they felt Shubhro could do the job well and approached him, and even though hesitant at first, he made the music video. "Soon after that I joined another band called Sahara where I met Paul Kirkham, the then Managing Director of BAT, who quit his job to pursue his love for music in the UK. He influenced me greatly and told me to do something that I love," he says, "that is when I seriously thought of direction as a career."

Shubhro was soon was approached by popular singer James to make five music videos. During the same time, ATN channel contacted him to direct a musical show called Rock and Rhythm. After gaining much popularity from the show, James then upped his offer to Shubhro to start the company RED dot. "After establishing RED dot, I got into this profession full time," says Shubhro. "I learned all the technicalities while doing the job, and the more I learned, the more I was fascinated by it." 

He was called from some of the biggest corporate agencies to directed ad films and shows. Shubhro has created over 400 TVCs so far. "But one that I was possibly happiest with was the audio-visual 'Beautiful Bangladesh' for the ICC 2011 World Cup," says Shubhro.

Apart from this, Shubhro has also made ad films for the Bangladesh Navy and the Bangladesh Air Force. He has worked with Lux Channel I Superstar for 3 seasons, and Close-up 1 for a music video of the top-10 contestants.  

As Shubhro continues to charm his audience through fantastic audio-visuals, he has high hopes for future ad filmmakers. "We have great facilities now; we have YouTube and Google, where people can learn things easily," he says, "but the one thing everyone should remember is to recognise their own creativity. YouTube and Google can only teach all the technicalities, but everyone has their own creativity and it is entirely up to them to express it in their own unique way."