Not long after the hubbub and compliments waned for the night, Habib Paracha finally found a small piece of secluded utopia to catch his breath and let it all sink in.

His latest film, The Last Full Measure (TLFM) — a drama of war, politics and long overdue recognition of bravery — had touched the audience attending the premiere. Although this was not the first premiere he had attended of TLFM, seeing his work appreciated in his home country gives Paracha the confidence he needs to put his grand plans in motion.

This wasn’t the ideal time for an interview. Emotionally caught up in the moment, with his cell phone constantly buzzing and guests waiting for him outside, Paracha was still kind enough to not rush out of the door.

His schedule was airtight as it is. Paracha barely had a day left before returning back to America, where his other film, an actioner titled Open Source starring Bruce Willis, is in the midst of production.

The next time we speak, Paracha is swerving his car into a drive-through takeaway in Los Angeles. With the Oscars just around the bend (quite literally in this case), the still-green but eager-to-learn producer lets go of networking opportunities to talk to Icon.

Pakistani-American filmmaker Habib Paracha wants to run as far away as possible from the perception of a rich man making it in the most sought-after of film industries, Hollywood

Placing an order for food, Paracha is a little hesitant when we start talking about his family business. “Some might say that [getting into Hollywood] was easy for me because I was born with a silver spoon,” he says, not thrilled with the question. Habib hails from a dynamic industrialist family that has business interests in mining, sugar, ethanol and farming. Although being born rich is no lie, Paracha wants to run as far away as possible from the perception of a rich man making it in the most sought-after of film industries.

Paracha holds a business and management degree from Boston University. Getting bored developing and managing companies, he says that his career in Hollywood “just happened.”

“It was more about personality, I guess,” he says quite candidly. An avid world traveler (“I’ve been to about 48-49 countries. This year I’ll be crossing 50, which is 25 percent of the world”), Paracha met a Hollywood producer who liked his natural, easy-going persona.

After a while, Paracha became a part of Saban Films’ heist-thriller The Trust, starring Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood — perhaps one of the few critically-acclaimed commercial films in Cage’s recent career. At that time, Paracha only had a financial stake in The Trust, but no firsthand knowledge of how movies are really made.

The Trust was initially launched in 2016 at the South X South West Film Festival, a well-known film festival in America, and that was where things started getting real for him. “I was on IMDB [the Internet Movie Data Base] and people started sending me scripts.

“Most of them [were really bad],” he tells me when I enquire about the ‘perceived’ quality of screenplays written by Hollywood screenwriters (both established and up and coming). “Everyone thinks that their script is the best,” he sighs in defeat. “Some of them are quite bizarre and not in a good way.

“Honestly speaking, I’ve only done four projects so I’m not qualified enough to be judging anything,” Paracha adds modestly. “[If I were to gauge my abilities] maybe my capabilities to evaluate projects only go up to 50-60 percent.” This means that there is a 40 percent chance that he will miss a perfectly good screenplay!

“I’m not saying that I’ve done four films in Hollywood and I know everything. That’s just being stupid. No one knows 100 percent, even if you’ve done a hundred movies. You can still get it wrong,” he exclaims.

Paracha, though, has been lucky … or maybe he’s just smart enough.

His follow-up production was Terminal starring Margot Robbie, and The Strive with Danny Glover — both, again, getting favourable reviews.

His last film, TLFM, had Marvel/Avengers alumni Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson, William Hurt (aka Winter Soldier, Nick Fury and General Thunderbolt Ross), along with Christopher Plummer, Ed Harris, Diane Ladd, Bradley Whitford, John Savage and the late Peter Fonda.

With his fifth production — the aforementioned Open Source with Willis — now almost complete, Paracha is going back to his original goal: making something big and worthwhile in his native country.

In a turn of phrase, for Paracha it is “Pakistani Cinema or Bust”. Not “Hollywood or Bust!”.

“I did The Trust knowing that I can never be this big, big, guy in America,” he confesses. “For me to be a big guy here [in the US], where the industry is run by multi-billion-dollar conglomerates, will be very difficult.

“But what I can do,” he adds with a slight excitement in his voice, “is learn from here and be that very big guy in Pakistan, where I already have family roots and access [to getting things done].

“What I don’t have is the knowledge base, which I’m acquiring,” he resolves.

On the sets of Open Source, Paracha didn’t spend the day like your routine executive producer by mingling with the cast or watching from a distance. He, instead, stuck to the sound technician like superglue, absorbing whatever he could from morning till evening.

The knowledge he is slowly accumulating will help him with his first Pakistani film: a Mission: Impossible/G.I. Joe-type spectacle with which he plans to make bona fide heroes, and explore franchise and merchandising avenues very few have thought about.

I’m not saying that I’ve done four films in Hollywood and I know everything. That’s just being stupid. No one knows 100 percent, even if you’ve done a hundred movies. You can still get it wrong,” he exclaims.

The still untitled film will have an international cast and crew and Hollywood-level production quality, he says.

“I want to be able to connect Hollywood to Pakistan, which so far no one has yet been able to do.”

Producing a spectacle in Pakistan, especially in the present economic slump, is a bad business call, I tell Paracha. He, however, believes that this is an opportunity, and argues that the businessman in him has already scouted out his target demographic.

Marvel movies, Fast and Furious and other Hollywood tentpoles always do excellent business in Pakistan, he explains. His film will attract those who go to the cinemas to watch expensive Hollywood films.

Paracha knows that it is next to impossible to make a grand spectacle in Hollywood by himself. One needs at least five million dollars for producing even a small, substantial film in Hollywood, and even with that amount the film hardly registers, let alone breaks through the overcrowded market, he explains.

The only way Paracha was able to build a strong portfolio is by working with producers who had interesting projects in development … but even this strategy had one shortcoming.

“I’m not the director, so I have very little control of how the film is being shot. [Being one of the executive producers], I knew that my hands are tied. In order for a movie to resonate with what I want to show, I need to take full-on control. And that is where Pakistan comes in. The budgets are big in America, even with the four-five credits I have, it would be impossible for me to raise [millions]. In that same amount of money, I’ll be able to do 10 extravagant films in Pakistan,” Paracha exclaims with resoluteness.

“There is a lot of room for growth in Pakistan”, he adds, a touch of his inner entrepreneur taking over. “[The country is teeming with young blood]. Around 60 percent of our country is under the age of 34,” he says.

“I feel like I may be able to do a lot through this medium in terms of educating people, building narratives locally and international, as well as improving tolerance, and the ethical and moral fabric of our society.”

The films we do make for our youth are hardly enticing, he says. Paracha feels that Pakistani cinema has made more than enough “safe” romantic-comedies and drama stories.

“Our society is segmented as it is. It’s very bigoted, and we don’t even realise how bigoted we really are, calling people: kaala, ganja, and what not. We do it in very open conversations, such as: “Daikho wahan koi ganja hoga, usko paisay day aana” [Go there, and you’ll find that bald man. Give him the money]. These are slurs, and everyone, whether consciously or unconsciously, does this.”

Do films have the power to change society, I quiz Paracha.

“Films are an instrument of change in society,” Paracha shoots back with utter conviction. “If you look at how it happened in America, or how it happened in India, the youth, their resolve and media are instrumental in forcing change,” he says. “It won’t happen in one year, or in one picture. It’s going to happen in 10 years.

“I would joke around with my dad,” Paracha recalls, “that if I had to do it all again, I would do it [in the entertainment industry]. You can make money in media, you can get fame, but most importantly, you have the ability to make a change — a positive one if you so choose or a negative one — and that’s up to the individual.”

Published in Dawn, ICON, February 16th, 2020