Making Baby Do Die Do was only half the battle for actor-turned-producer Saqib Saleem. Paving the thriller’s road to release, without a studio backing its campaign or distribution, has been an education for the new producer. “Producing a film and trying to bring it to theatres is a humbling experience. In today’s cluttered market, trying to find a place for a film that is not studio-led has been a completely different experience,” began Saleem.

Baby Do Die Do stars his sister and actor Huma Qureshi in the lead role, and marks the duo’s first co-production under their new banner Saleem Siblings. Their previous productions, including Double XL (2022), were studio-backed and taught Saleem the mechanics of filmmaking. What frustrated him was what happened after the movie was complete.

“When it came to putting it out for release, I felt my film was not treated properly or didn’t get the showcasing it should have. If I did it independently, I’d be able to pull in more muscle because when other people are involved, you don’t have full control over how your film is positioned,” he recalled.

That perhaps fuelled Saleem’s desire to build an independent creative ecosystem rather than waiting for opportunities to arrive.

He shared, “We want to create an ecosystem for interesting voices. We call ourselves a boutique production house because our bandwidth doesn’t allow us to do more than one film at a time. With Baby Do Die Do, we just wanted to make a good film. Whether this works or not, everything is on us. I have no one to blame. I have reached a point in my life  where I want far more agency in the decisions I take and the creative choices I make.”

Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s popular song ‘Ishq Kameena’ from Shakti has been recreated for ‘Baby Do Die Do’.

Admitting that the idea originated from Tips chairman Kumar Taurani, Saleem shared, “The idea was to make more people aware of the film. When you recreate a classic, there will be people who don’t like it. But if the purpose is to make people aware that our film exists, it served that purpose.”