Filmmaker Uzair Merchant on his work in NFTs: 'This is going to change the music, fashion and film business forever'

  • Updated
 Uzair Merchant

The music video Stardust became quite a rage worldwide recently for it being one of the world's first videos to be entirely shot on an iPhone under Bkreativ productions and the man behind it is filmmaker Uzair Merchant. The video garnered laurels internationally at the New York Film Awards 2021, Milan Gold Awards 2021, and Los Angeles Film Awards 2021, and the success nudged Uzair to mint it as world's first Security NFT.

The filmmaker shares that he has been exploring NFTs now for over 13 years. He even started building his own production house named 'The Kreativ Universe', which he earlier called Intellectually Interactive (II), from his university days. "It was meant to be a seamless platform to integrate films with art and games. So, this has been a long journey. While deciding to produce Stardust, I knew I was going to link it into an NFT, to be able to leverage the bigger picture Black Rose, the TV show that features Stardust in its original soundtrack. Turning it into a security token was our partner DH Kim's magic as an artist with the financial and capital markets side from Finhaven technologies. Put together, we have a brand business model for the film and capital markets side," he shares.

Uzair informs that the NFT will be launched on their platform called Metaism.x, which will be a Unique Invite only marketplace for users and artists. "This will be the base for us to link the film and NFT model to bring forward all the hidden and lost talent from around the world," he avers.

Delving into the NFT market must open up many new prospects in Uzair's career, but that is not what the filmmaker's prime focus is. "I don't consider what I do, work, so I don't look for career prospects. As an artist, creating is my way of expressing, addressing, and experiencing this world. I've always followed a rule One for love, one for money. The money is to make sure that we can keep doing what we love, so usually, that's my thinking always. How do we create a long lasting cycle or add character and soul to what we are doing, that's where my focus lies. Even if it's for money, there must be some value that you bring to the table or else, that art is tainted, unfortunately," he insists.

But after achieving this feat, Uzair has some more ideas that he will be rolling with now. "Directed by James Bamford of Arrow and Superman and Lois fame, Black Rose is meant to be an interactive experience, where people would be able to choose alternate endings to each episode while also being able to purchase NFTs directly from the show and link it to the game. To me, this is going to change the music, fashion, and film business forever," he promises.