Abu Aleeha

Abu Aleeha (born Ali Sajjad Shah),^[1] is a Pakistani filmmaker and writer.^[1] Aleeha started his career as a journalist.^[2] He made his directorial debut with the 2019 film, Kataksha, which he also wrote. He has since directed and written a variety of films for Pakistani cinema such as Tevar, Udham Patakh,^[3] Kukri, Super Punjabi, Once Upon a Time in Karachi, Shot Cut, Sheenogai and Daadal.^[4][5] His latest film, Taxali Gate was released countrywide on 16 February 2024.^[6][7]

Abu Aleeha
Born	Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan
Occupations	film director writer
Years active	2019–present

Career

He started his career as an investigative journalist for Daily Pakistan. After a decade working in Islamabad and Rawalpindi in different Urdu and English newspaper companies, he started working as a content writer and eventually turned filmmaker.^[8]

In 2021, Abu Aleeha criticized nepotism in the film industry of his country, ^[9] which explains why he may have been called as a "self-professed rebel against the system”.^[1]

In 2022, the director announced that he was working on Javed Iqbal 2, a planned sequel to Javed Iqbal: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer^[2] but the project came to a halt later that year.^[10]

His next film titled, Seylum, will be the most expensive Pakistani Punjabi film after 2022's The Legend of Maula Jatt.^[11]

Filmography

Key

†	Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released

Director and Writer

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
2019	Kataksha	Yes	Yes	Yes	Debut as film director[12]
	Tevar	Yes	Yes	No	[12]
2022	Udham Patakh	Yes	Yes	No	[8]
2023	Kukri	Yes	Yes	No	[13]
	Daadal	Yes	Yes	No	[14]
2024	Taxali Gate	Yes	Yes	No	[15]
2025	Behnaz	Yes	Yes	No