SPOTLIGHT: THE ROAD TO A FILM ARCHIVE.

'We're not doing enough for our next generation,' Shaikh Amjad Rasheed tells me as our tea arrives. 'We have a rich history of films and filmmakers, who unfortunately very few know about and even fewer appreciate today.'

Rasheed is the Chairman of the IMGC Group of companies (producers of edible oil brands, textile manufacturing mills, soaps, detergents, etc) whose media label, Distribution Club (DC), produces and distributes a lot of Pakistani motion pictures.

In fact, DC doesn't say no to movies at all. Good, bad, ugly, atrocious, they all eventually find a distribution partner with DC, because Rasheed can't say no to filmmakers. He once told me that if he doesn't support Pakistani movies, who will? The least he can do is get them to the screens. Whether they work or not, that's their own kismet, he says.

However, our meeting isn't about DC or their new slate of movies. Rather, it is about looking at the past - and hopefully learning from it.

My tea cup is shifted to the other room, where I preview snippets from a new interview show titled Journey of Icons (no relation to this publication), in which veteran actors and filmmakers pour their heart out.

Film producer Amjad Rasheed wants to give back to his industry. An under-production interview show with veteran actors and filmmakers is merely the first step. Eventually he wants to create an independent digital film archive for Pakistan

Directed by Shehzad Rafique, a well-known director whose filmography includes Salaakhein, Mohabbataan Sachiyaan, Ishq Khuda and Salute, Journey of Icons has a nostalgic, heart-touching feel.

The show, I was told, was quickly wrapping edit and another season with Karachi-based celebrities was being prepped (the first season is Lahore-centric), and that a broadcast deal with DawnNews has been finalised.

'We're not doing a regular television show,' Rasheed tells me. 'Our guests are allowed to speak well past their time limit.' Although one episode is planned per artist, some celebrities have two or three episodes because they have so many stories to tell.

The teaser trailer, by itself, is longer than expected, and the line-up of guests shown in it is extensive: Iqbal Kashmiri (late), Nadeem Baig, Ghulam Mohiuddin, Syed Noor, Hamid Ali Khan, Nasir Adeeb, Shahid Hameed, Sangeeta, Zulfiqar Ali Aatre, Deeba Begum, Nisho Begum, Irfan Khoosat, Resham, Masood Butt, Hasan Askari, Altaf Hussain, Tafu, Arif Lohar, Shabnam Majeed, Naveed Nashad, Naghma Begum, Sania Saeed...