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Visual Artist, Director and Producer Sago Answers  Some Questions That Recent Press Has Us Asking  

We have three burning questions for Sago, the visual artist, filmmaker and video content director who,  according to various other news sources, among other feats in his 7(ish) year career so far, has directed  and produced over 150 projects during a single year period. The questions go as follows. Number one: Is  it true? Number two: How? Number three: Has the number gone up each year since? Because that sounds  like a bit much for a continuing thing.  

Now before we jump into these three questions for Sago, there’s a certain amount of information that we  shall establish in order to set up the conversation accurately.  

Harbaksh Sahi, famously known as Sago, is a filmmaker and a video content director and producer,  among various other things we should add. Since the start of his career as a video content director and  producer around 2015, his unique, eclectic vision has been in high demand.  

Sago’s creative style is multifaceted, and his artistic knowledge is encyclopedic, and this becomes evident  by the amount of artists and brands in such a diverse range of industries that look to Sago for their  projects. Musicians and record labels, fashion brands and fashion magazines, stand-up comics and  streaming platforms, movie studios and television networks, events companies and even globally  renowned chefs, work with Sago to create what others might call “content”, but what for Sago are each  works of audio-visual art, each with their own individual characteristics and personalities.  

Take a look at just some of the names that he has acquired into his portfolio over the last few years.  Grammy winning and nominated artists, such as Skrillex, Stephane Wrembel, composer of the soundtrack  of the Oscar winning film Midnight in Paris, Beth Hart, Malika Tirolien, Louis Banks, the band of A.R.  Rahman, among an international array of countless other artists like the Emmy nominated Willow Smith,  Jahnavi Harrison, Jannabi, Karsh Kale, Prateek Kuhad, the list is extensive and covers a number of 

countries including the United States, India, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Bosnia  and Herzegovina, not to mention the record labels, from the various homegrown local independent ones  of some of the countries mentioned above, to giants like Universal, Roc Nation, and MSFTS;  Plus, some the biggest and most popular fashion brands and magazines there are, including ELLE, Bobbi  Brown, L’Officiel, and NYX;  

Plus, studios, streaming platforms and networks like Viacom, Netflix, Amazon, Vh1, and MTV;  Plus, commercials and other forms of video content for various other global brands, such as Mastercard,  Vertex Effects, Smirnoff, Bacardi, Harman, Lakmé, Femina, Impresario, Vallonne, the Total Environment  Music Foundation, and Marvel;  

And plus, directing and producing travel and culture based content in and for various countries, including  the United States, India, Thailand, Nepal, the United Kingdom, and Singapore;  

Along the way, casually directing multi-award winning actors from Oscar winning films like Anil Kapoor  of Slumdog Millionaire, while he’s at it!  

Essentially, a 7-8 year portfolio that could make even people who have worked twice the number of years  at least a little envious, and we should add, for those wondering, that Sago does not come from a family  of people in the arts and entertainment industry. As he puts it, he dove right into this pool sometime  around 2015, swam and swam, and soon enough found himself swimming in an ocean. We paraphrased.  

Okay, now let’s get to those three questions.  

“Yes. It indeed is true.” Sago confirms the answer to our first question, leading us to our next question,  “How?!”  

“I don’t know! I was enjoying it way too much and didn’t feel like stopping and didn’t feel like saying no  to projects!”  

Okay, that partly answers why, but still not how.  

“It was honestly a combination of so many things. I mean, it was a lifestyle change pretty much entirely. I  could try and talk about one or two specific things that might have contributed, but the whole answer  would be that I just dedicated my entire lifestyle in one direction. Literally, in the earlier stages, I 

genuinely did. For example, if I’d go out to a restaurant or a bar to grab dinner with friends, and the place  looked even mildly interesting to me, I’d look them up on Instagram or check out their website, and  without consciously trying, I’d start getting ideas for cool things that this restaurant or bar could do. Not  always, but often, like I said, if the place looked a bit interesting in any way. And then I’d reach out to  them and suggest these ideas to them. Or, if I was watching a movie, and, for example, the wardrobe  styling appealed to my eyes, it would trigger ideas for videos or other visual projects in my mind, and  then I’d look out for the Costume Designer’s name in the credits or look them up on IMDb, and reach out  to them with these ideas. So practically everything I was doing in my day to day life, if anything triggered  any ideas in my mind for cool visual projects, I’d just go forward with it and try to make it happen. Some  of them lead to projects, and of course, some of them never responded. But I wasn’t doing this as though  it was a job, things in my day to day life would naturally make me think of ideas, and then I was  genuinely interested in trying to make those ideas happen, because why not?”  

This lifestyle dedication to a specific craft gives us a better idea of how projects would begin to come in  for Sago, and how projects would develop. But it’s still a feat to pull off something like over a hundred  projects in a one year period, and we wanted a glimpse of how one filmmaker could manage to do all of  it.  

To make the question more specific, we asked Sago about the many international projects that began  coming his way, and how he was able to manage the traveling and the actual production of projects in his  schedule.  

“One thing that was pretty much a constant in my life at that point, was sleeping and eating on the go. I’d  be eating my meals on the go most of the time, and I’d be sleeping on the go a lot of the times. Also, I  think one interesting factor to realize is that being in the 21st century, we don’t necessarily have to stick to  20th century production processes even though that’s how we learn them. Well this is true in some cases  at least. Yes, there were various international projects that I was getting. Some of them, I did travel to  other countries. But some of them, it was actually possible to direct the production without having to  physically be there. Like, I directed and produced various projects in Paris, France, without actually  needing to travel to Paris myself. We had screens and speakers to see and talk to each other, and good 

internet to connect smoothly. Now sure, it does not compare to physically being present on location, but  as a director, in some cases, if I felt that I could successfully pull off a project by making use of  technology in this way, then I’d take up the project. Not to mention, it was extremely humbling that artists  and brands would reach out to me from different countries and want to bring me on board as a director for  their projects, and would even be okay with me directing remotely, as long as I assure them the haute  couture of audio-visual productions so to speak, that they saw in my portfolio. This was quite an honor for  me! So I wouldn’t say no to the project if I wasn’t able to travel to the location, as long as, upon  discussing all the details of the project with the client, I felt that I could do it and do it well. It involved a  lot more work during pre-production, and a lot more planning and preparatory work with the crew in  Paris, but overall, to answer your question, this was probably one of the reasons I was able to do a larger  number of international projects. That being said though, the ones that I actually travelled internationally  for, were all such amazing experiences! My first choice would always be to actually travel for the project  if I can. I guess that’s a pretty universal feeling, who wouldn’t want to travel to different countries and  film projects there? Especially doing what we do, working with people in the various arts and culture  industries, the work itself is so culturally explorative!”  

Alright, question number three, has the number gone up each year since?  

While a year of over a hundred projects with such renowned brands and artists from such a range of  industries and such diverse cultures may seem like the peek, Sago continues to climb.  After the aforementioned year and all the projects it brought Sago, he continued to add new names to his  portfolio, including projects with internationally renowned award winning Singaporean chef Bjorn Shen,  global organizations such as the Singapore Tourism Board / Visit Singapore, Grammy nominated artists  such as Louis Banks, among numerous records, known for his collaborations with musical icons,  including the founder of Modern Jazz Miles Davis himself, and John McLaughlin, German brand Meinl  Percussion, and as per usual, an international array of projects with musical artists, including France  based Leprofici, and India based Randolph Correia, Komorebi, Samira Koppikar, Mohini Dey,  Pentagram, Vishal Dadlani, Vasundhara Vee, The Fanculos, Gino Banks, and the Swadesi Movement,  among numerous others, where his production studio Glowworm Collective has been instrumental, to say 

the least, in breaking grounds and giving visual life to the independent music and comedy scenes, as well  as continuing to grow his portfolio in the global fashion and beauty industry, with international and  American brands such as NYX, and continuing his trendsetting work in the comedy industry with many  other stand-up comics as seen on YouTube, Amazon, and Netflix, by millions of viewers, all of these  being in addition to continuing regular projects with some of the clients and collaborators that he already  had a working association with from the previous years.  

“The way it goes in this field of work, if you’re going the right way at least, is that after a point of  establishing yourself as an entrepreneurial artist, each year, you can do fewer projects while earning more  money. That’s the natural way, that’s what makes success evident in this field, and while it’s still very  tempting to say yes to every project that comes my way, or, correction, most projects, the honest answer  is, if the number of projects continued to rise each year, that wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing. I mean  honestly, going above 150 projects in a year low-key sounds unhealthy, although I don’t regret the grind  of that year because it paid off in a good way! So while the grind still continues, and the number of  projects each year is still pretty high, no, that number hasn’t gone above 150, and I don’t plan on it to go  up there either. However, if I may very humbly flex a little bit, the number on the checks I am offered has  been going up!”  

A very humble flex indeed, Sago, but one that you’ve rightfully earned! 



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