The Lux Style Awards (LSAs) can’t help but stir controversy.
This year’s nominations had only just been announced, bringing in the usual onslaught of hurt sentiments and injured egos, when a recent turn of events started off a fresh wave of conjecture. Hassan Shehryar Yasin (HSY) is not going to be the show director for this year’s event.
The designer and creative director had directed the LSAs for the first time last year and it was assumed that he would continue with the job this time around. In fact, in a candid conversation with Images some weeks ago, he had hinted at his exciting plans for the LSAs. With LSA 2018 slotted to take place on February 21, which is less than a month away, what brought about this sudden change?
Speaking to Images exclusively from France, where he is attending Paris Couture Week, HSY explains, “I have built my career over a span of 24 years and a certain quality and creativity is associated with my work. For several months now I had been chalking out my plans for the LSAs but I was recently informed that I would have to work with a much lower budget than I had had last year. We went back and forth with budget changes and concept changes and inevitably I realised that I could not attach my name with a show that did not depict my vision.”
"Concepts and people require finances and I can’t go about asking big stars to work for less money." — HSY
“It’s what I told them. After all, they had gotten me on board because of my vision and if I could not give that to them, then it was better that I wasn’t part of the show at all.
"A certain budget is required to put up a grand show that is worthy of the LSA name, to enlist major stars to perform on stage and make sure that everything is standout. We were planning a show that would have touched the core of what is happening around us in the country and delivered an impactful social message. But concepts and people require finances and I can’t go about asking big stars to work for less money.
"Stars happily work with me because my strength has always been my goodwill and that’s because I am fair. I couldn’t be unfair to the LSAs or to myself.”