Meet Shomi Patwary, the Bangladesh-American director who worked with Beyoncé and The Weeknd

Shomi Patwary is a Bangladeshi-American director who is famous for creating music videos for renowned celebrities like Beyoncé, Pharrell Williams, The Weeknd, Mark Ronson, Kylie Jenner, Diplo, Shah Rukh Khan and many more. 

Recently the director worked on a documentary by Snapple, which raised money for departmental stores affected by Covid-19. 

Shomi runs his own production house called 'Illusive Media' along with his wife and Executive Producer Punom Patwary. 

His elusive career boasts more than 2,000 projects but his road to stardom was not easy as he had to work hard to reach where he is now. 

The Business Standard interviewed Shomi to get to know more about his life, his production company Illusive Media, his bonding with Pharrell Williams, and his future projects in Bangladesh. 

Where it all began

Growing up, Shomi spent most of his time with his cousins with whom he watched 1970s movies and also listened to the 1980s new wave like 'New order' and 'Nine inch nails'. 

"My cousins heavily influenced my music taste and they were also massively into hip hop. The first hip hop track that I listened to was 'Wreckx-n-effect rump shaker' produced by Pharrell in 1994. And ironically enough my sixth grade teacher was Pharrell's mother. Pharrell and I laughed about it when we recalled the incident." 

Initially, Shomi along with his best friend formed the multimedia company called 'Illusive Media' through which they did everything starting from printing, marketing, and video and web designing. However, Shomi wanted to do more than just designing websites. He wanted to make videos. He went to New York and started working for Pharrell's Karmalooptv.

Working with Pharrell Williams

Shomi Patwary first met Pharrell when he was working as an intern for his company. 

The two became good friends and although they do not get to see each other much, the 'Happy' singer still surprises Shomi by gifting him brand new sneakers every two months. 

"I was a huge fan of N.E.R.D back in the 2000's. Through my high school friend, I got to connect with Pharrell's good friend Doug Dozier and that got me the chance to work as an intern for Pharrell's company Star Trek. Later on I got to work with Pharrell on his other venture KarmaloopTV.  Karmaloop opened up a lot of doors for me as they gave me freedom to make creative projects without imposing any restrictions," Shomi shared with TBS.   

He also shared a hilarious incident involving Pharrell. 

"During my time as an intern for Star Trek, Pharrell signed a cheque and when I went to cash it, nobody at the bank believed me. They thought I was a fraud!"

Reinventing 'Illusive Media' 

"MTV Desi assigned me a project to shoot Zafar Alam, the famous Bangladeshi surfer at Cox's Bazar. I reached out to him for a short documentary and he agreed. I did not have any crew except for my wife and a little boy to help us carry the equipment," the director said.  

"This was the first time my wife and I worked together and I realised that we too could start our own company. So I left my job at The Fader Magazine to kick start our company with the same name 'Illusive Media' in 2015." 

Through their production house, they have worked with Ava Max, Offset, Diplo, Adidas and created an award winning documentary on Wu-Tang Clan. 

Working with The Weeknd, Beyoncé, and Ava Max 

Shomi Patwary worked with The Weeknd when he was just starting out his career in 2015. It was Belly - Might not ft The Weeknd. 

"It was a wonderful experience to work with The Weeknd during his initial days. He was just starting to get big and Belly wrote a song 'Might not' for him. The idea behind the music video was to create a dreamlike state. The trickiest part of the video was the underwater rap scene. We initially thought to use VFX but Belly wanted to shoot the actual thing," Shomi informed TBS. 

Belly - Might not ft The Weeknd got nominated for five different categories at the Much Music Video Awards in Canada. 

Jay-Z did the final editing for the music video. 

Shomi also got the chance to work with Beyoncé for the music video for 'No Angel' but due to a non-disclosure agreement, he cannot speak about it. 

Shomi's most watched music video was Ava's 'Sweet but psycho' which got 700 million views and made Ava famous. 

"Ava had been working since she was 12 but she gained international stardom after 'Sweet but psycho'. The music video was inspired by old Alfred Hitchcock movies and 'American Psycho'. The song was Max's first top 10 single in the United States, peaking at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. She sold three million singles of this song."

Another music video that Shomi had a lot of fun making was 21 Savage, Offset, Metro Boomin - Ric Flair Drip. 

The audio was released in 2017, which got million views and they released the music video with Ric Flair's cameo, a year later. 

The music video recorded 400 billion views till now and the director shared some epic moments during shooting with the 16 times WWE World Champion. 

"Ric Flair was the most fun guy on the sets and we actually brought his iconic fur robes from the Hall of Fame Museum to shoot the video. We purposely wanted the music video to be stereotypical. The cinematography was great and the colour effect was superb," Shomi said.

Shooting a commercial with Kylie Jenner 

Shomi got to work with Kylie Jenner for Complex magazine. The director found the social media star to be shy and camera conscious.

"She got extremely scared when she saw how big the camera lens was.  We had to maintain a great amount of distance from her and the camera to make sure the video ended perfectly. For a five-minute shot, Kylie made us wait eight hours because she was not done with her makeup." 

Working with Shah Rukh Khan and Diplo 

Shomi recalled, "My wife is always around superstars and never asks to take any photos but when it came to Shah Rukh Khan, she was completely star struck. We flew out to LA to shoot the music video 'Phurrr'."

"Diplo wanted to work with SRK and we had just an hour to shoot the whole thing. It was one of my memorable works and Shah Rukh Khan was truly the nicest person I have seen," he added.  

Transition from music videos to short films

Shomi is known for his Guerilla-style shooting which means shooting, editing, and doing everything all by oneself. 

"When I was younger it was easier to do Guerilla-style shooting but now that I am aging I want to focus more on short films and documentaries. Right now my work is guided by my life and I have changed my style from illusions to narrative and reality."

Shomi directed the Webby nominated and nine Telly awards winning documentary on the Beatles of hip-hop, the Wu-Tang Clan. 

The documentary was made as a tribute to the band on the 25th anniversary of their debut album '36 chamber'. 

Shomi now prefers to write TV shows, dramas, and movies and has produced content for Showtime. 

He has completed writing his first script which is a semi- autobiographical movie loosely based on his life and the movie revolves around a Bangali kid growing up in America. 

He is also working on a horror movie script. 

Future plans in Bangladesh 

Shomi has plans to make a feature film in Bangladesh, preferably a horror movie. 

He plans on directing the movie in Bangladesh with international crew members to produce a high definition production. 

The director hopes to cast Bangladeshi celebrities and wants to make the movie for an international audience.