Aliakbar Campwala
Aliakbar Campwala (born Mumbai) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, and director, originally from India, who lives in the United Kingdom. He is best known for his role in the film 7 Welcome to London which is a British made Bollywood-Esque action the entertainer on the topic of immigration.
Aliakbar Campwala | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Actor, Film Maker |
| Years active | 2007 – present |
Early life
Aliakbar Campwala is an occasional actor, instead preferring mostly to direct, write scripts, and edit films and has won short film awards and worked as an assistant to different kinds of filmmakers, where he has screened films in festivals. He has mostly worked in media production, but he also does a bit of acting and loves doing comedy. In this production (7WTL). In 2008 he was involved in a Kurdish SZA, meaning pain, film selected at the Exodus Film Festival. The film deals with the conflict between older and younger generation refugees in England.
Campwala presented his new film Samuel Street[1] at Cannes’ Marché du Film 2016, which explores the upheavals of the Middle-Class masses of India, cultural and commercial capital.
Campwala served as a screenwriter, assistant director, and editor. He counts among his influences, films from around the globe including Taare Zameen Par, In the Mood for love, a bittersweet life (Korean film), and others.
Film career
Being Gujarati, he masterly plays Goldie in the film (Asad Shan’s best friend). A very different character, a light-hearted person – has played a very interesting role in the film. Goldie is a South Indian person living in the UK he’s an IT engineer and Aliakbar Campwala previous experiences in Bombay and has a lot of friends from South India who would only talk IT helped him to conquer the knowledge and could put that into the character he played.
2011 brought the short "Satisfied???" which was written and directed by Campwala. The film won Best Indian Short in 2011, it is based on a personal story reflecting the changing world in cities including Campwala's native Mumbai. In the same year, he released a documentary titled ‘The Invisible Subtitler’[2] which sheds some light on how the subtitles industry has developed and how translators provide the subtitles for the benefit of movie watchers. The documentary was screened at The European Commission's representation in the UK, the "Europe House" in London.
In 2012 Aliakbar Campwala starred in the British film "7 Welcome to London"[3], a film about the experiences of immigrants from India. Playing Goldie, a South Indian IT Engineer living in the United Kingdom, who has come to regard London as a second home. His character Goldie meets and befriends 25-year-old Jai, an illegal immigrant in London hoping to improve his family's situation back in India. drew inspiration for the character from his travels as a child to South India.
In the year 2013, The Labor Film Database remarked Campwala’s Documentary - The Invisible Subtitler -is the first documentary to provide a clear insight into the world of subtitling in the film industry. It is an independent documentary about the use of subtitles in cinema and the life of subtitlers themselves who are living in the UK. It also focuses on the economic issues faced by the subtitlers and how they are currently invisible in the globalized business of the film industry.
On May 14, 2016, Campwala presented his new film Samuel Street at Cannes’ Marché du Film[4], which explores the upheavals of the Middle-Class masses of India, cultural and commercial capital. He explains that an NRI is not always glamorous the way Karan Johar made it out to be. The Muslim NRI could very well be working in the Middle East, alienated from his wife and children whom he left behind. More apparent than in Mumbai, India’s teeming, vibrant and cosmopolitan capital of culture and commerce. The film also features Gujarati and Marathi cinema veteran actress Sarita Joshi plays a different mother —burkha-clad, middle-class, and a Muslim from Masjid Bunder. Film section, a hub for young professionals to further their projects. For Campwala, 35, who resides in Bedfordshire, UK, this film has meant revisiting his childhood home in Dongri. The film is a warm, comical, and nostalgic journey that is also dashed with surrealism and realism. Campwala wanted to focus on the city dweller and the challenges they face, in particular the elders of Middle-Class India.
'Not Out'[5] the documentary Aiakbar Campwala filmed as a Director in Mumbai during 2019 and will be releasing this year in 2020. It celebrates the Mumbai's gully cricket scene with ' Gladiators ' an underdog underprivileged team that reunited to play cricket after 2 decades in India once again. This unique concept is the epicentre of Aliakbar Campwala's new documentary which was filmed all over Mumbai covering the lives and memories of these household stars of the game.
2020, Campwala, written and directed 'Lockdown Dreams 2020’[7]; a comic lockdown web-series which is filmed by actors from different parts of the world in these unrivalled times. The series is made within constraints of lockdown around the world, engaging in talents against odds. The contribution of Arc pictures is an important factor as well as a motivation for one to hope that better times will come, by staying positive.‘Lockdown Dreams 2020 A.C’ – Episode 2 Now available to watch online on Arc Pictures YouTube page.
Media Presence
Aliakbar Campwala is among the few Directors whose film The Invisible Subtitler was premiered at Europe on Screen, the longest-running international film festival in Indonesia, a celebration of 100th Anniversary[6] that happened from 3–12 May 2018, of Ingmar Bergman and a dip in the Ocean Festival. The tradition of bringing Europe filmmakers to Indonesia.
Personal life
Campwala was born and raised in Dongri, South Mumbai and studied in the Rosary High School near Dockyard Road Railway station, Mumbai and graduated from the University of Bedfordshire with the Masters in International Cinema. Aliakbar Campwala Specialises in his Comedic acting and has been involved in theatre projects in Malaysia. Cooking and playing cricket have been Campwala’s favorite pursuits. He is also a part of a club in India and U.K positioned as an all-rounder off-spinner bowler.