Singer Haroon is known for his pop-rock hits. In recent times, he has also been making waves with the award-winning animated series Burka Avenger as its creator, director and producer. Here, he sheds light on his latest series Teetoo And Tania and waxes eloquent on the future of animation in Pakistan.

Teetoo And Tania

I had originally conceived the concept for Burka Avenger (BA) towards the end of 2010 after reading about girls’ schools being shut down by the extremist forces. I imagined a female schoolteacher standing up to them. By day she is a schoolteacher, but when she confronts the bad guys she dons a burka-like disguise to fight back. She uses books and pens instead of weapons and ammunition.

Teetoo And Tania (T&T) is a completely different project. Each BA episode was 22 minutes long while T&T has 16 episodes of four to five minutes. The animation quality is also superior to what we did in BA. T&T is now running on PTV and so far the response has been great. We have received hundreds of thousands of views online as well.

The reason we chose PTV is because it has the largest reach. PTV is a terrestrial channel which means even those people who do not have access to cable can watch it.

The concept behind T&T is to focus on the real-life Pakistani heroes and role models to inspire the Pakistani youth. Positive role models such as Edhi, Aitzaz Hasan Bangash [the school boy who stopped the suicide bomber in Hangu District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa] and many others have been highlighted. The episodes also carry English subtitles and are uploaded online regularly. Our goal is to show the rest of the world what Pakistanis are all about. Pakistan has an image problem which needs to be addressed via such media projects.

Pop star Haroon shares with Icon his views on his new animated series Teetoo And Tania, his alter-ego and a music app

The characters in T&T are funny and dynamic and the story is an interesting one: Teetoo is an ‘alien’ bureaucrat who works at the Galactic Council which has decided that earthlings are a threat to the existence of the universe. Teetoo is transported to earth and his overall survey initially suggests that Earth must be destroyed. Pakistan is the only country left to survey by Teetoo who crash-lands here and a teenage girl called Tania saves him. Tania’s stories of Pakistani heroes and role models eventually help to convince Teetoo to save Earth from destruction.

From a technical perspective, T&T posed as a huge challenge because we wanted the animation to be at par with any international project. The key challenge is to make a show which is engaging and entertaining yet something that also imparts a strong social message. I think we have managed to achieve both with BA and now T&T.

The Future of animation

The future of animation in Pakistan is very bright with an abundance of talent. Time Magazine named Burka Avenger one of the most influential fictional characters of 2013. My dream is for Pakistan to become a hub in South Asia for animation. Our neighbouring countries such as India and China outsource hundreds of millions of dollars worth of animation work a year. There is no reason Pakistan can’t get a slice of that.

Our neighbouring countries such as India and China outsource hundreds of millions of dollars worth of animation work a year. There is no reason Pakistan can’t get a slice of that.”

We are now working on a new project related to BA. I will reveal more details when the time comes.

Freddie Fiction and YouTube

I have been releasing English songs under the guise of Freddie Fiction (FF). I have only released a couple of tracks on YouTube. FF is almost like an alter-ego. It is a project through which I can release my English compositions. FF comprises myself and other talented musicians who work with me on the songs.

For me the ‘Freddie’ part is a tribute to one of my favourite singers Freddie Mercury. ‘Fiction’ sort of says that this is a new creation different from Haroon.

We recorded a few tracks in Los Angeles and there are a couple of music videos that were shot aboard and are ready. The plan is to launch a major music video for Freddie Fiction this year.

Taazi

Taazi.com is a music streaming website and app that we created at Unicorn Black to promote Pakistani music. It is also a ground-breaking concert ticketing app. Recently, Taazi did the ticketing for Black Box Sounds’ Major Lazer/Diplo concert in Islamabad. Currently, we are doing the ticketing for the Face Music Mela in Islamabad, which has top Pakistani artists’ on the bill. The main idea behind Taazi is to promote Pakistani artists music through online projection and concerts. We are planning more live events for Pakistani acts moving forward.

Music vs animation

I love content creation. I was fully focused on Burka Avenger and animation and have taken a six-year break from music. So right now I am itching to do some music and launch some new material. g — S.S.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2017