Original format · Youth culture · International production · Brand partnerships

The idea

What connects a young wakeboarder in Singapore, a street artist in Bangkok, a punk musician in Manila and a martial artist in Tokyo?

I wanted to find out. More than that, I wanted to create a television series around the energy, curiosity and shared passions that connected them.

Extreme sport, music and environmental conservation might have seemed like disparate worlds. To me, they offered different ways into something much bigger: the passions, ideas and experiences through which young people could recognise one another, regardless of where they came from.

The result was Kamal’s Planet Ex, an original television format that reflected both who I was and what I believed in.

Beyond the expected

Planet Ex brought together worlds television rarely placed side by side. Each episode moved between high-adrenaline adventure, underground music, street culture, traditional practices and environmental stories, uncovering unexpected connections along the way.

The format was participatory by design. I wasn’t simply interviewing athletes or reporting on their exploits; I threw myself into the experiences. From wakeboarding, climbing and skydiving to a host of other tests of nerve, being part of the action rather than observing from the sidelines was central to the storytelling.

The adventure was the invitation. The people, their cultures and the connections between them were the point.

Built to travel

Across 26 episodes filmed in 26 countries, the series developed into an ambitious international production, with every destination bringing a new set of stories, collaborators and opportunities.

The first 13 episodes took us across Asia and Australia. We worked with national tourism boards in each country, developing partnerships that went well beyond conventional location support. They helped coordinate local transport, accommodation, food and guides, while opening doors to places, people and stories we might never otherwise have discovered.

Qantas and China Southern Airlines came on board as airline partners, The Ritz-Carlton provided hospitality in destinations where the group operated, and Visa joined as a sponsor.

The next 13 episodes took us into Europe and North America. We explored everything from French extreme-sports culture and the Swiss Alps to Turkey’s wrestling traditions, British street luge and underground music. There were medieval jousts, glacier descents, strongman contests and extraordinary characters whose stories were often as compelling as the adventures themselves.

With the success of the first season established, developing partnerships for the second became a considerably easier proposition. The Accor group provided accommodation across the cities we visited, while national tourism boards continued to support local arrangements, access and production on the ground.

Behind the apparent spontaneity was a considerable exercise in creative development, relationship-building, negotiation and international coordination. It meant bringing broadcasters, sponsors, tourism bodies, hospitality groups and local collaborators together around a single original idea, and building the infrastructure to take it around the world.

The result

• 26episodes filmed across 26 countries
• 2seasons spanning Asia, Australia, Europe and North America
• 300Mhouseholds reached through Sony AXN and terrestrial television channels worldwide
• Visaprincipal sponsorship
• International partnersQantas, China Southern Airlines, The Ritz-Carlton, Accor and national tourism boards
• Highly CommendedAsian Television Awards · Best Presenter and Best Programme

What it made possible

Planet Ex was more than a travel or adventure series. It was an original format with a point of view, bringing together youth culture, sport, music and human stories, and giving them a platform on the international stage.

Creating it required more than an idea for a television show. It meant recognising connections where others might see categories, translating those connections into a compelling broadcast proposition, and building the relationships, commercial partnerships and production infrastructure to make it happen across 26 countries.

It also reinforced an instinct that has continued to shape my work: the belief that the most interesting ideas often emerge at the intersection of seemingly unrelated worlds.

That instinct still drives Kamaal — finding the common thread, bringing different people and perspectives together, and turning an idea into something people can see, experience and connect with.

Bringing a global music television brand into a new market takes more than importing a format. It takes an understanding of the culture, the audience and the conversations that matter to them.

Through my work with Interruption TV, I initiated the relationship with MuchMusic in Toronto and participated in the negotiations that secured the agreement to bring the Canadian music television brand to Asia, beginning with Malaysia.

The creative challenge was to make an established international brand resonate with a new audience. Alongside international music and youth culture, the programming needed to reflect the people, artists and perspectives of the region.

That meant creating space for local voices. From highlighting Malaysian artists to introducing Speakers’ Corner, we wanted to give young people a platform to express themselves, share their perspectives and engage with the world around them.

I was involved in bringing the venture to life on both the production and presenting fronts, producing and hosting programmes that connected the energy of international music television with the culture and aspirations of a local audience.

The ambition was never simply to import a brand. It was to make it belong.

Client development · Creative concepts · Brand identity · Television advertising

At Interruption TV, I played a key role in bringing United Breweries Group on as a client. As Co-founder, Vice-President of Creative Services and Head of Content Development, I worked alongside my business partner to develop creative work for the group, spanning three television commercials for McDowell’s Whisky, Kingfisher Water and Kingfisher ICE.

With restrictions on direct alcohol advertising in India, each brief called for a different approach. Rather than see the limitations as obstacles, we looked for alternative ways to communicate the brands, finding creative routes that were both distinctive and appropriate to the regulatory environment.

McDowell’s Whisky

Finding the idea in the product.

The human body is approximately 74% water. Water is also an essential ingredient in the way many Indians enjoy their whisky.

We built the concept around that connection, using water as a way to communicate with consumers without advertising the whisky directly.

The restriction became the starting point for the creative idea.

Kingfisher Water

A new direction for the bird.

We proposed reimagining the familiar Kingfisher bird, giving the established symbol a new expression: the bird in flight.

UB Group accepted the recommendation, and we developed and delivered the new logo designs.

The redesigned bird featured in the Kingfisher Water commercial. Using CGI, we brought it to life on screen, introducing the new identity through the water brand.

Kingfisher ICE

The reveal.

For Kingfisher ICE, we took the story into an icy mountain landscape. The challenge of moving through the frozen terrain became the means of revealing the product, making the environment integral to the idea and giving the commercial a visual identity of its own.

The thinking behind the work

The most interesting solutions aren’t always the obvious ones. Sometimes a restriction becomes the starting point for an idea; sometimes a familiar symbol needs to be reimagined; sometimes the answer lies in the way a story is told.

At Interruption TV, we approached each brief with curiosity, looking for the possibilities others might overlook.

Original concept · Brand development · Editorial direction · Digital commerce · Team leadership

The insight

As an athlete myself, I understood something about wellbeing that I felt was missing from the wider conversation: for an athlete, it isn’t an occasional pursuit or an aspiration. It is integral to how they live.

Their livelihood depends on how they care for their bodies, manage their minds, recover, eat, train and sustain themselves over time.

I saw an opportunity to bring that lived understanding to a much wider audience, particularly women.

Rather than turn to the usual roster of celebrities, I wanted to celebrate elite athletes as role models. Their relationship with wellbeing wasn’t simply an image to project; it was a discipline they had to practise every day.

Building the idea

I originated and built The Wellery as a digital magazine designed to empower women through wellbeing.

The ambition was to bring together inspiration, knowledge and lived experience in a platform that could help women make more informed, considered choices about how they lived.

This was about more than publishing articles. It meant developing the brand, shaping the editorial vision, defining its proposition and creating a digital experience that could translate the idea into something useful and engaging.

The concept also extended into commerce. The platform curated wellbeing products, applying a discerning, qualitative approach to selection. Trust was central: the value lay not in offering more products, but in helping people navigate an increasingly crowded marketplace with greater confidence.

Editorial and commerce were designed to reinforce one another: inspiration and knowledge on one side, carefully considered choices on the other.

From independent concept to a larger platform

I developed the original concept independently, taking it from an idea to a defined digital brand and business proposition.

When Roundglass acquired it, the next phase began.

I built and led a team to evolve the concept into The Roundglass Wellery, bringing the editorial vision and curated commerce proposition into a larger wellbeing ecosystem.

The acquisition marked a significant step in the life of the idea: from an independently originated concept to a platform with the backing and scope to develop further.

What it represents

The Wellery brought together several strands of my work: understanding an audience through lived experience, identifying a gap in the cultural conversation, creating a distinctive editorial proposition, building a digital brand and connecting content with commerce.

It also reflected a belief that continues to shape my work: the most credible inspiration often comes from people who practise what they represent.

For Kamaal, The Wellery is an example of turning a personal insight into an original concept, and building it into something others recognised as worth taking further.

Original television format · Co-creation · International partnership

What if the journey to the future began with a deeper understanding of the past?

Curiosity has always been my starting point. A fascination with life, the universe and everything in between, as Douglas Adams so perfectly put it.

My partner at the time and I spent hours exploring ideas around the subjects that captivated us. Ancient Astronaut emerged as a natural extension of that curiosity, taking the spirit of exploration behind Planet Ex deeper into the mysteries of our planet and beyond, into space.

But this time, I wanted the journey to begin much further back. Before reaching for the stars, we would explore the extraordinary achievements of ancient civilisations, asking what they could teach us about human ingenuity, our place in the universe and the possibilities that lay ahead.

The ambition was to take reality television somewhere it had never been before: the International Space Station.

A competition with an extraordinary destination

The format was designed to unite intellectual discovery with physical challenge, cultural heritage with scientific exploration, and the history of human achievement with the ultimate human adventure.

The competition would take contestants on a journey from humanity’s ancient achievements to the frontier of human spaceflight.

At stake was an extraordinary prize: a journey aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station.

From an ambitious idea to an international partnership

I co-created the original television format and brought Chiranjeev Kathuria into the project as a partner. Together, we took the concept to Energia.

The three of us spent considerable time in Moscow with the Energia team, working through the project and its practical requirements. The response was enthusiastic. Discussions progressed, the logistics were worked through, and we eventually celebrated the signing of our partnership to support the commercial cosmonaut training and Soyuz mission at the heart of the format.

The agreement included a seat for me aboard the Soyuz, to accompany the winner to the International Space Station.

As we raised our champagne glasses, I was pinching myself.

For me, it was an extraordinary experience: watching an idea that had begun in conversations driven by curiosity move into the realm of serious international collaboration.

This was no longer simply a concept on paper. We had a signed partnership and a route towards making the central ambition of the show possible.

When the world changed

For a time, it was all systems go.

Then circumstances changed. Interruption TV went public on NASDAQ, and the September 11 attacks followed soon afterwards. The global climate shifted, and the appetite for risk surrounding civilian spaceflight changed profoundly.

The project was ultimately shelved before the format could be realised. The journey to the ISS has yet to take place. The idea remains.

It remains one of the most ambitious concepts I have worked on, not because it reached the screen, but because of the scale of what we set out to do, the international partnership we developed and the extraordinary possibilities we came close to bringing into view.

Some ideas change the direction of a career. Others remain a reminder of how far curiosity can take you, even when circumstances prevent you from reaching the destination.

Ancient Astronaut was both.

Original IP · Historical research · Screenwriting · Series development

The discovery

While travelling the world for Kamal’s Planet Ex, I found myself learning martial arts from the people who practised them, entering their dojos, meeting their masters and discovering the histories and philosophies behind their disciplines.

In Japan, conversations with martial artists led me towards a connection I had never expected: India’s ancient martial traditions. In Indonesia, witnessing a demonstration of Pencak Silat opened another door. Each encounter left me with more questions than answers.

Then I encountered the story of Bodhidharma, the Indian Buddhist monk traditionally associated with bringing Chan Buddhism to China and, in later accounts, with the origins of Shaolin martial arts.

Here was a figure whose journey crossed geography, philosophy and martial tradition, yet whose story remained largely outside the popular imagination.

I wanted to know more.

Following the thread

What began as a fascination became an investigation. The more I explored, the more the story expanded beyond martial arts into questions of belief, discipline, knowledge and the movement of ideas between civilisations.

Bodhidharma offered a way into a world where history and legend intersected, where spiritual inquiry travelled across borders, and where the transmission of knowledge could transform cultures in ways that endured for centuries.

The challenge was not simply to recount a historical figure’s journey. It was to find a compelling way to bring that world to life: to explore what could be known, what had become legend, and what remained open to interpretation.

The research kept leading somewhere new. Eventually, the questions became a screenplay.

From fascination to original IP

The Legend of Bodhidharma was the first creative expression of that investigation. The screenplay was sold, marking a shift from personal fascination and research into the development of original intellectual property.

But the story had further possibilities. It continued to evolve into Bodhidharma: The Way Beyond, conceived as a larger series exploring the worlds surrounding this extraordinary figure and the ideas that travelled with him.

The ambition extended beyond a conventional historical retelling. The project opened up a meeting point between ancient knowledge, philosophy, cultural exchange and the enduring human search for understanding: a world in which history could become a starting point for deeper questions.

The wider vision

What began on location, through encounters with practitioners of martial arts, became a journey across disciplines: from lived experience to historical inquiry, from research to screenwriting, and from a screenplay to a larger series concept.

It was a reminder that the most compelling ideas do not always arrive fully formed. Sometimes they emerge when one experience leads to another, when an unexpected connection refuses to be ignored, and when the original question proves far bigger than anticipated.

For Kamaal, this is the creative process in motion: follow the question, make the connections, and keep going until the idea reveals what it could become.

Youth development · Co-founding · Venture development

During Mumbai’s 2020 lockdown, Islanders FC began with one child and a coach. One became two, two became four. We moved from ground to ground, finding places to play, train and grow. Gradually, the players came together as a team, one that went on to compete in tournaments and win.

What began as a simple response to a young footballer’s need grew into a youth football initiative, co-founded by my partner and me.

But the idea extended beyond the pitch.

The larger vision was to develop an all-season football hub in Mumbai: an integrated football ecosystem bringing together elite youth development, male and female club teams, professional and amateur programmes, technical analysis and wider community participation.

The proposed facility would combine football pitches and training infrastructure with fitness, recovery and treatment facilities, alongside complementary amenities for players and families.

At its heart was a dual ambition: to build a high-performance club capable of developing players for elite competition, while widening access to the game through public and institutional memberships and NGO/CSR scholarship programmes.

The ambition was to connect a meaningful youth-development mission with a commercially sustainable venture, one that could grow beyond the team itself and establish a lasting home for football in Mumbai.

I was central to the initiative’s development, from its early beginnings through to the wider vision. The experience reflects how I approach an idea: start with a real need, bring people together around a shared purpose, and explore what else it could become.

Sometimes the first achievement is making the idea real.

Cultural platform · In development

What if youth culture could do more than shape what we consume? What if it could help shape how we live, participate and build what comes next?

R•AGE, the Regenerative Age, is a cultural platform in development, conceived to help young people move from awareness to agency as they transition into adulthood.

The idea brings together culture, creative expression, belonging, participation and regenerative enterprise in a connected ecosystem. Rather than asking young people to adapt to systems that no longer serve them, R•AGE explores how to create the conditions for them to shape something different.

The thinking

Culture shapes more than taste. It influences identity, behaviour, belonging and our sense of what is possible.

Drawing on my experience in youth culture and media, alongside my work across creative ventures, design and environmental storytelling, I began exploring how that cultural influence could be put to a different purpose.

Could a platform connect creative expression with meaningful participation, community with contribution, and commerce with regenerative principles?

The work

I developed R•AGE from its founding premise into a proposed cultural and commercial platform, shaping its vision, strategic architecture, creative direction, operating model and business model.

The concept brings together six connected spaces: The Field, The Voice, The Body, The Studio, The Commons and The Exchange. Together, they explore how cultural discovery, expression, movement, creativity, community and regenerative commerce might form a connected experience.

The bigger question

How do we create the conditions for a generation not just to inherit the future, but to participate in shaping it?

R•AGE is my exploration of that question, and of the role culture might play in building a regenerative age.