For Habib, whose last assignment before veering towards direction was as a cameraman with an English news channel, filmmaking occurred accidentally and was not his natural choice per se.
"Unlike most filmmakers today, I had no cliched dream of making movies at the age of five," confesses the screenwriter-director Habib Faisal.
Faisal, who grew up with the dream of becoming a doctor, says, "I failed in all my entrance exams...I had fascination to become a doctor but I had no brains. For us being in IIT or IIM was glamorous".
In the colourful corridors of Kirori Mal college in Delhi, Faisal was introduced to theatre and cinema. "I somehow got into doing a play. I was not interested in doing films but wanted to do theatres," he said.
After completing his education from Delhi, Faisal studied cinema at South Illinois University and joined NDTV as a cameraman. He worked for the news channel for five years and learnt the tricks of the trade.
"My job as a cameraman happened by accident. I used to shoot features for the channel....The experience over there helped me travel across the country and get in touch with real characters. It did help me connect with the pulse of the masses. From that point on there was no looking back as far as writing dialogues is concerned....Films all happened by accident," Faisal said. (More)