Project timeline: 2026 · video publication year. Published as a retrospective on 23 October 2026.
My credit on Number 1 is the concept. JM, Junaid Z Khan, directed the music video, which features Arian Romal and Tia Bajpai. I want to put that clearly at the beginning, because being proud of an idea does not require me to claim the direction of a film somebody else made.
I enjoy the early part of a collaboration, when a song can still lead towards several visual possibilities. The challenge is to offer something that has enough identity to be useful to another creative person. An idea should open a route for the project, rather than leave everyone guessing what is supposed to hold it together.
The day behind the film
What interests me about concept work is the need to communicate beyond my own imagination. An idea that only makes sense inside the person who proposed it is not yet ready for collaboration. It needs a centre that another creative person can understand, question and develop without having to guess what was intended.
That does not mean deciding every image in advance. A useful concept can leave room for interpretation. The important distinction is between leaving room and leaving confusion. I want the people receiving an idea to understand its purpose, even when they see a different or stronger way to express it.
There is a particular discipline in contributing to a project that someone else directs. I can care about the work and recognise my part in its development while allowing the director's role to remain visible. Collaboration is not made stronger by treating every credit as if it meant the same thing.
The artists also bring their own presence and relationship to the music. A concept should give that presence something useful to work with, rather than ask the performers to disappear inside a visual explanation. The audience ultimately encounters the people and the song through a finished sequence, not through the description of an early idea.
For me, Number 1 belongs in a conversation about the range of ways I contribute to screen projects. Some work begins with my direction on set; other work begins earlier, at the point where an idea is proposed and a creative route is opened. Both can be meaningful, provided their boundaries are described honestly.
Number 1 is part of my body of work through that contribution. I want a portfolio that shows the range of responsibilities I take on, including the ones that happen before a director is on set. The concept belongs in that story, and so does the person who carried the video through its direction.
Add your voice
Leave a comment.