Aladdin had a magic lamp and he could make his genie do everything, but that was centuries ago. Khawar Riaz doesn’t have a magic lamp but he has a mind that works far better than that. No wonder he picks up people from the streets and turn them into Greek gods and goddesses.
“Khawar grooms his models in such a way that no one really believes that they have been picked up from the streets” designer Deepak Perwani recently commented. The only problem is that at one stage the demi gods and goddesses think of themselves immortals and become too big for their own boots. Case in point: Zara Shiekh and Ahmed Butt, Two people KR took under his wings, spent money, groomed them and presented them to the world of fashion as his discoveries.
Zara made waves with her beautiful looks and landed herself into many prestigious assignments making her rivals go green with envy and reached where it took Vinny, Iraj and Aaminah Haq Years. Her success story begun with Jazz success story begun with Jazz billboards which made Zara as a bankable commodity. Zara fever was every nook cranny. Multinationals wanted her for their commercials; designers wanted her to adorn their clothes and film and TV directors made a beeline outside Khawar’s dwell to sign her for their ventures. Thanks to Khawar who had calculated mind to chalk out her career. On the other hand Ahmed Butt had no great looks but Khawar built up his image in such a way that Ahmed and glamor went hand in hand. No other male model has had a career chalked and Ahmed Buttout in a systematic way as it was with him.
Projects followed by more projects and the trio went all laughing to the bank. This was the flashcard that Khawar flashed on his rivals Ather Shahzad face. The only difference was that while their girls have stuck tot their mentors while Khawar’s protégés had too many feathers in the cap, enough to make them think that they were now ready to take independent flights.
As soon as Zara and Ahmed broke off with their god father, the industry was ripe with rumors how Zara and Ahmed were sick and tired of being treated as the slave drive of their godfather and that Khawar did not own them, “they made it big on because of their talent not Khawar” disclosed a close friend of Ahmed. Life without Khawar was definitely independent and fun, no permission from the godfather and there were no dos and the don’ts. But, professionally speaking both ended up making the professional hara kari that most people in this profession make by getting carried away. Zara thought the product would sell if she landed her name to it, quickly forgetting that it was her inaccessibility that made her a sensation and that without Khawar she was nothing but a flash in the pan. Without KR she bagged B grade projects, and the once promising star came down with a thud, quite sooner then the godfather was thinking.
“People misled her, telling her to work with others because she was getting stale and stagnant with me. So she chose to move on to what may have seemed to her at the time to be greener pastures. Later she realized that it was a misstep that what she left behind her was her home, and there is no place like home says the mentor.
