For the love of Bollywood: Meet Emirati Bader Ali Habib and his passion for ‘desi pop culture’

Dubai: Long before he ever visited India, 35-year-old Emirati Bader Ali Habib knew Mumbai through the movies.

His earliest memories as a child are of sitting in front of the television, watching ‘Channel 33’, captivated by colourful song-and-dance sequences, elaborate costumes and larger-than-life emotions.

“There were football matches. There were cartoons. There were all the usual childhood distractions. But for some reason, I could never get out of Bollywood," he said.

The first Hindi film he watched in a cinema was Dil To Pagal Hai (1997).

But even after the film ended, his fascination for the world of Bollywood lingered on. That fascination would quietly shape the next three decades of his life.

Growing up at a time when the internet was picking up, he found himself reading everything he could about the industry. Some of his first hunting grounds were websites dedicated to Bollywood movies – India FM (which would later become Bollywood Hungama) Cine Blitz and Stardust.

“I used to read reviews by critics like Taran Adarsh and was fascinated with how he analysed the movies. I read so many reviews that eventually I started reviewing films, too,” he said.

Returning from the cinema, he’d jot down his thoughts and share his reviews on his Facebook account.

It was a time when Bollywood was going through one of its most transformative periods, with several trailblazers redefining the industry’s content.

Music director A. R. Rahman was changing the sound of Indian cinema, by blending global influences into Bollywood music. Superstar Aamir Khan had a streak of hits, from Lagaan (2001) all the way up till Taare Zameen Par (2007), each touching on different subjects and director/producer Anurag Kashyap delivered Gangs of Wasseypur (2014), a movie on mafia-like families fighting for control of a coal-mining town.

That’s when Habib began to realise just how vast the country was and how different people’s lives could be.

“It started to strike me how India has the Tier 1 cities, and a movie like ‘Wake Up Sid’ (2009) could only be set in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore. But Anurag [Kashyap] can tell stories that are more centric to the hinterlands. That’s what expanded my understanding of India and its geography. So, for me, Bollywood was a way for understanding India,” he said.

Another movie that had a big impact on him was Rang de Basanti (2006), a political drama and coming-of-age film.

“For me Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra [the movie director] had a huge role to play in moving me from that ‘La la land’ to having a more analytical approach to movies. Aamir Khan, in fact, really influenced the way I looked at cinema,” he said.

One of his first visits to Mumbai was in 2016, and one he remembers vividly.

“It was raining that day, as it often does in Mumbai,” he said.

For him, that trip to Mumbai, and all the trips since, have been similar to visiting a theme park – sitting next to a studio where classic songs were recorded, or visiting studios that produced epics like Mughal-E-Azam.

It was on one such trips in 2024, that he sat in Prithvi Theatre – the cultural hub built to honour the legacy of one of India’s biggest moviemakers Prithviraj Kapoor – with his wife Sakina, that the idea of ‘Saanjh’ was born.

Sitting at the location that celebrated the Kapoor family dynasty, listening to conversations around them rooted in culture and art, Habib and Sakina spoke about how they wished to create something similar in Dubai.

“Dubai has a lot of events happening – there are mehfils [cultural gatherings] and concerts. But there's very little happening where communities come together to celebrate something beyond just music,” he said.

“The motto of Saanjh was to bring people together under the umbrella of pop culture, celebrating cinema, films, movies, directors, producers … everything to do with cinema,” he said.

In November 2024 Saanjh was founded and one of the first events Habib organised in 2025 was a talk with the man who had played a role in kindling his passion for Bollywood – director and producer Anurag Kashyap.

“His film Kennedy was ready to release, and we requested for a screening in Dubai,” he said.

But along with the screening, Habib also organised a masterclass and fireside chat with the filmmaker, which was a concept not yet explored in Dubai.

The response from the community was phenomenal.

“We were expecting about 45 people to show up for the masterclass. Nearly 95 showed up,” he said.

What was more surprising for Habib was seeing the kind of attendance at the event.

“Most of the people who came were either budding film-makers, editors, short film-makers, people with films that had already been shot, but they wanted to understand from Anurag on how to release them. So, these were industry specialists, not just fans,” he said.

This feedback from the community confirmed a suspicion Habib always had – there were film-making specialists in the city, but they had no place to come together to share their knowledge, learn and grow.

That is the gap Habib wishes to fill through Saanjh. Connecting professionals and pop culture lovers with the greatest artists the subcontinent has to offer – not just in Bollywood, but also from the Pakistani TV and music industry, as well as South Indian cinema.

“We understand that Pakistani television is extremely popular. And that export has helped Pakistan build its pop culture. Even looking at the music of Pakistan, which is popular across different parts of the region. So, today, we host events like the master classes, film screenings, fire-side chats, Bollywood nights and open mics. Everything that engages community but also gives them an opportunity to get in touch with some of the experts within the field,” he said.

In just under two years, the couple have brought in artists from the subcontinent - singers, actors and directors, for various events that take place at different cultural hubs across Dubai like the Al Serkal Avenue or even Expo City Dubai, depending on the attendance.

The community has also been steadily growing online - with over 700 members spread across four WhatsApp groups.

Anyone can participate by registering for its public events, which can, at times, be ticketed. The details for each event, and where attendees can buy tickets in some cases, are shared through Saanjh's social media channels.

"Saanjh was never a commercial venture for us, but we do have tickets for certain events to cover for costs related to licensing and organising the event," Habib said.

The focus, however, is to build a community with the long- term vision to boost homegrown talent. And Dubai, Habib feels, is the perfect place to bring in the best talents from the subcontinent in one place.

"Saanjh was always meant to be an extension of Dubai itself," Habib said. "This is my city and my country, and I wanted to give something back. We have people from across South Asia moving here with incredible creative talent and experience, but there are still very few spaces where aspiring filmmakers, writers and storytellers can learn from those who have already done it."

He hopes Saanjh can become that gateway – a place where young creatives can meet directors, producers and artists, learn from them, and find the confidence to pursue cinema themselves.

"Who knows?" he said. "Maybe one day Dubai will have a film school led by some of the best filmmakers from India and Pakistan. Maybe this city can become a place where people don't just come to watch cinema, but to learn it, create it and build careers in it. The industry here is still growing, and I genuinely believe there's so much more we can do."