The Immortal

Sikandar Usman was born on 21st June 1987 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He grew up watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman and Spiderman. It was movies like ‘Indiana Jones Trilogy’, ‘Star Wars Trilogy’ and ‘The Lion King’ that not only made him passionate of watching movies but also intrigued him with the process of making movies. Brought up in a society where the film industry was underdeveloped, Usman graduated in ‘Diploma in Economics’ and ‘BSc. Accounting & Finance’ from London School of Economics and Political Science. But fate could not keep Usman much far away from the world of telling stories.

In June 2010, Sikandar trying to make a career in Banking attended a theatre play that he thoroughly enjoyed. The Production Company called ‘Kuch Khaas’ mentioned that they offer filmmaking courses too. He immediately enrolled and there was no looking back.

In January 2012 Sikandar’s horror short film Flip Side 2(prequel to his debut short Flip Side) won an award at ‘Screen My Shorts Film Festivals’ in Islamabad, Pakistan and got him a job at the Jury’s renowned production house Serendip Productions. During the same year he directed a Public Service Message that started creating an impact on saving natural resources.

In 2013 Sikandar tried to experiment with different genres and made a comedy short film called ‘Kaisa Nova’. The short film won the 1st prize at the ‘Nazrien Neechay’ short film competition held in Pakistan. Enjoying the success of comedy, Sikandar gave it another try in 2014 and directed a comedy/satire short film ‘Skillified’-based on a true incident. The film brought Sikandar into the limelight overnight and made him a bankable filmmaker.

Yet again wanted to experiment with something different, Sikandar decided to explore documentary filmmaking to become a better storyteller. He made a short documentary on the life of children living in the slums titled as ‘Life in the Slums’. The short got highly acclaimed at ’60 Second International Film Festival’ and ‘American Film Showcase’ etc. and took Sikandar’s career to a whole new level where he started working with notable Filmmakers and added several documentaries, music videos, ads and short films etc. to his credit.

2016 proved to be a challenging year where Sikandar had no release and every project he tried to make got shelved.

In 2017 Sikandar struck back with a series of short documentaries on some of the historic poets of his region. The series received great acclaim from the audience because of which Directors and Producers from the mainstream film industry started noticing Sikandar and hired him to work under their banners.
Sikandar continues to work with such banners and makes his short films.