Sameer Hafiz started out as an intern for Lintas University, learning at an early age that this meant making just enough money for pizza every month.

Apprenticed to Film And Radio (FAR) Productions, he worked as production staff, assistant director, scriptwriter, editor and (in desperation) even as a model for director – producer duo Kailash and Jeet Surendranath. Sameer Hafiz learnt aspects of production and film making from Kailash and, perhaps more importantly, compassion to animals from Jeet, working on films for Nyle Shampoo, Hero Honda, Archies Cards, Sportstar (which he edited to a Led Zeppelin soundtrack) and Avis Jeans, which was his the first ever film he scripted, previsualized, planned production for, modelled in and finally edited, and then went out and bought himself a washing machine with the money.

After a brief stint with outdoor advertising, Sameer decided to start Colossus, which, in partnership, went on to become the most prolific music video production company in India, where he produced, wrote and co-directed over a 100 music videos, corporate films, and commercials, shooting videos that remain classics such as Anaida’s Oova Oova, Mehnaz’s Ms. India, Daler Mehndi’s Hojayegi Balle Balle and the like.

Music videos (which remain to this day his great passion) taught him to work with crushing schedules, impossible budgets, and to tell complicated stories without the benefit of dialogue. It taught him that (as director Tim Burton is fond of saying), film making is about limitations, and it taught him (as Steven Spielberg is fond of saying) the Importance of Comfortable Shoes.

It also taught him, by virtue of necessity, the cardinal rule of screenplay writing: don’t say it, show it instead.

Despite serving as executive producer on Hari Puttar, a children’s film, Sameer has stayed on the periphery of Bollywood, preferring to work as a creative consultant and writer, working on English language screenplays and selling these to companies such as White Feather Films, Balaji Motion Pictures and Blue Throat Entertainment.

Sameer is typically called in to work on concepts that are unconventional, seeking to create through writing a world that the audience inhabits as comfortably as the characters in it, and draws extensively (if shamelessly) from his education in English Literature to inform, and embellish, all his stories, and all his screenplays.