LAHORE: Film-maker and businessman Mahmud Sipra passed away in Dubai after suffering a heart attack on Thursday, according to the sources in the family. He was 75.

Sipra was born in Ranchi, India, into a family of distinguished professionals. His father was Saeed Ahmed, an army major, and his brother, Rasheed Ahmed Khan, was SSP Chittagong. He was cousin to Justice Sajjad A Sipra, Riaz A Sipra, who served as inspector general of police, and Imtiaz Sipra, an eminent sports journalist.

Sipra started his career in Karachi with Sasa Advertising and won an award for a cigarette campaign. He produced some other exceptional works and also worked as a TV English newscaster in Karachi.

His sister, Samia Tareen, said that he had shifted to the US in 1971 where he began a shipping business which continued until the 1980s.

Sipra also produced film and the most well-known film that he helped finance was The Jigsaw Man (1983), a British film, which had actors like Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in its cast. ‘Suraj Pe Dastak’ and ‘Khyber Horse’ were two Pakistani films that he started but unfortunately they could not be completed despite many attempts. The music of the former film was released. It had Mehdi

Hasan, Noor Jahan, Ustad Rais Khan and Tahira Syed among the singers. He published a English language novel, Pawn to King Three, from England in 1985. It was written in the background of the Partition.

His niece and chief executive officer of Synergy Inc Ambrin Sipra says his last few years were spent in Dubai and he also wrote articles for an English daily in Pakistan.

Samia said Sipra had been suffering from cardiac issues and he had been on the ventilator for the last two days. The cause of death was pneumonia, she said, Sipra was divorced and leaves behind two sons, Faisal and Taimur.

His burial will take place in Lahore on Tuesday morning after his sons’ return to Pakistan for the funeral.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2018