Chaka Sobhani: The Way I See It

I was born in Tehran, Iran. I was only there for literally a nano second and the revolution happened – my mum was studying in the UK so we stayed here.

My earliest memory is my parents having an argument and throwing flip flops at each other across the Persian rug in our studio flat in Manchester. I was around three years old.

At primary school I was the only brown kid with a funny name.

I grew up in Exeter, Devon until I was 11, then we moved to London. 

At primary school I was the only brown kid with a funny name. I’ve always said I was a happy outsider. 

Above: Portraits of Chaka Sobhani, by Nick Clark.

When I was about eight or nine years old I would get up at 5am, two hours before I had to go to school, and watch movies. 

I just used to tape everything on VHS and I spent every bit of pocket money I had at Apollo Video store renting out films. I was a latchkey kid. I’m an only child, I had a lot of time to myself.

I watched literally everything and anything but I loved all the old stuff. Danny Kaye and Harold Lloyd were particular favourites. Danny Kaye was a genius – a fucking genius!

Above: One of Danny Kaye's greatest films is the 1955 musical comedy, The Court Jester.

It was daft but it used to make me smile – the sequence where Harold Lloyd is hanging off a clock; Buster Keaton; you see the gags coming a mile off but you feel so satisfied and so happy afterwards. 

Life’s hard. But humour and great comic performers can lift your heart and give you hope.

Mum taught me to have a deep sense of gratitude for the smallest things. 

I think volatile is probably the best word for my childhood. I didn’t have the best dad but I did have the most magnificent mum to make up for it. We didn’t have much money but we had each other. 

Mum taught me how to be resilient and to have deep gratitude for the smallest things. She was a chemical engineer and had a sense of wonder and awe about the world – she could explain the most mundane or difficult things through that lens. 

She was an amazing storyteller and was also massively into watching films. 

Above: Harold Lloyd's famous hanging-off-a-clock scene in the 1923 silent rom-com, Safety Last!

I was very naughty at school. More cheeky than bad. I spent a lot of time in detention. 

My first role the film industry was at Boilerhouse Studios, where I learned practical elements of film making. It was a magical time. 

My first great love was directing, and that’s never gone away. I’d like to direct long form at some point. But other opportunities and creative challenges have always popped up – and I’ve always wanted to do it all. 

I really enjoyed working with Simon Cowell - he's a bloody clever man and rather lovely to boot.

I haven’t ever had a plan for my career. It’s been a massive amount of good luck and timing and I’ve also worked my fucking arse off… but things sort of just worked out.

Above: Among Sobhani's early directing triumphs is this trailer, Silent Retreat, for The Jonathan Ross Show. 

I've loved pretty much all of the TV shows I worked on. I really enjoyed working with Simon Cowell – he’s a bloody clever man and rather lovely to boot. And I worked closely with Ant and Dec for years – I wrote for them which was great as they’re brilliant performers and make everything funnier than on the page. 

High art or low art, fuck off, it's all creativity and if it makes people feel something then job done, frankly.

The cast, crew and writers of Coronation Street and Emmerdale are some of best people I’ve worked with. What used to really piss me off though was snobbery about some of the work. 

High art or low art, fuck off, it’s all creativity and if it makes people feel something then job done, frankly. Life is heavy, life is tough. I’m not making work for juries, I’m making work for someone to genuinely enjoy and laugh at.

Above: Sobhani created content for such hit shows as Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

The Corrie actors, honestly, they are so good, so on point. There’s so much story; filming six episodes a week. All the crying; all the pathos; week in, week out. It's a real craft and I don’t think they get the credit for it. 

I did love the immediacy and relevancy of TV – turnarounds were quicker than they are in advertising and you create stuff that people are already interested in which gives you a stronger starting point.

Life is heavy, life is tough. I’m not making work for the industry, I’m making work for someone to genuinely enjoy and laugh at.

It didn’t really seem a seismic move, going from advertising to TV. I went from being around brilliant makers and creators at ITV, to the brilliant makers and creators at Mother. 

Above: The Coronation Street title sequence was revamped by ITV Creative in 2010. 

Mother is unique and can’t just be described as an agency – it’s a playground for all types of creativity and one of the best gangs you can ever be part of.

It’s all art for fuck’s sake, Michelangelo had to sell his paintings... he had to get commissions before he could go and do the Sistine Chapel.

It’s interesting coming into advertising later in my career. I’m still like a kid in a fucking sweetshop to be honest. Because the opportunities are insane, they're just insane. The brands we work with, the budgets we have access to and the chance to be able to do some really cool shit. It’s fantastic. 

It’s a cracking industry, and I think we should be proud of it. 

Above: Mother's Christmas 2014 campaign for Boots.

I did a key note speech at Ciclope about why people in this industry are so embarrassed about sitting at the sharp precipice of commerce and creativity. The main point was that art sits at that same precipice but in different ways. 

It’s all art for fuck’s sake, Michelangelo had to sell his paintings... he had to get commissions before he could go and do the Sistine Chapel... the Beatles had to sell a bunch of records to get to do Sergeant Pepper. There’s no shame in it. If you can keep your creative integrity... there is no artist wants to create for an audience of one. 

Let’s not get our heads stuck up our arses, let's not make work just for our industry, let’s make work for audiences. 

Let’s not get our heads stuck up our arses, let's not make work just for our industry, let’s make work for audiences. Let’s do work that we really enjoy, if it wins awards that’s a lovely by-product.  Life is heavy, life is tough. I’m not making work for our industry, I’m making work for someone to genuinely enjoy and laugh at.

I’ve been so lucky to have had my path peppered with some brilliant folks – Clive and Michael from the Boilerhouse, Layla Smith, Laura Mackie, Peter Fincham, David Pemsel, Robert Saville and Mark Waites to name a few – all of them have been instrumental to my progress, and continue to guide me to this day. 

Too difficult to say what’s the best piece of advertising work I’ve ever seen. What we can create now compared to 20 years ago is between the moon and stars. But a piece that impacted me the most, at a specific time in my life, was Levi’s Launderette. It introduced me to Marvin Gaye, Ray Bans and of course Nick Kamen and pre-teen sexual awakenings. I still think it’s cool as fuck.

Above: Working on a Selfridges window display is on Sobhani's wish list. 

The best piece of advice I’ve had was from one of my first Heads of Production, the wonderful Mike Crosby at Fox. He told me not to always jump in with an opinion. Sit back, let people talk and you’ll learn a lot more. He was totally right.

Brands I’ve not worked with yet but would like to are probably the usual suspects like Nike but I’d also love to work on some fashion brands – H&M or Burberry. The windows at Selfridges have always been on the wish list, as has branding a festival or big event.

The work I’m most proud of? Again a tough one. I love our work for Maccers especially the Christmas campaigns and comedy promos. But I suppose if I had to pull out one it would be the Coronation Street title sequence. Strange choice I know as it’s not creatively the most daring or original, but to remake something so iconic and know that generations of Corrie fans will know every frame of that 25 seconds intro is a real buzz.

Cleopatra always seemed like a good time gal to me. I imagine lots of shenanigans went on in her court. 

Who would I like to collaborate with? I’m obsessed with [actor/filmmaker] Sam Levinson at the moment. I think Euphoria is a visual feast of filmmaking and the lighting alone is delicious. Don't even get me started on the soundtrack...

The best day of my career was getting my first job at the Boilerhouse. Unpaid and crazy hours but I was in and that’s all that mattered.

Worst was crying in the car park of a studio when a producer had ripped me a new one as a runner. She was unnecessarily brutal.

If I could change one thing about myself, I’d be a bit more patient. 

If I could time travel just once I’d go to ancient Egypt. Cleopatra always seemed like a good time gal to me. I imagine lots of shenanigans went on in her court.