Pakistani augmented reality ‘pioneer’ honored in Forbes 30 Under 30

RAWALPINDI: Forbes has chosen Pakistani Asad J Malik for its “30 Under 30” list of top achievers under 30 years old in their fields, calling him a “pioneer in using augmented reality for storytelling.”
Malik, 24, moved to the United States in 2016 for college. His breakout projects are “Terminal 3,” featuring young Muslim immigrants, and a collaboration with Magic Leap called “A Jester’s Tale.”
Last year Malik’s studio, 1RIC, inked a seven-figure investment deal, recruited veteran Executive Producer Ela Topcuoglu, and established offices in Los Angeles, CA. He is now also working with Verizon to build educational augmented reality (AR) experiences with 5G and his AR app Jadu, Urdu for magic, turns TikTok stars and musicians into holograms.
“It’s a nice sense of accomplishment but you also can get carried away with it too much,” Malik told Arab News in an interview, commenting on being recognized by Forbes. “I was very happy about it.”

Speaking about Jadu, Malik said: “We captured different artists with 160 cameras and recreated them in 3D in a very realistic way, and you’re able to place them in your space, in your world, with your phone.”
“It’s become popular on Tik Tok, there are millions of views,” he added.
Malik, who currently resides in Los Angeles, California, was born in Abbottabad and grew up in Khewra, home to Pakistan’s salt mines. He began coding and creating websites for fun as a young kid, he said.

“I was programming when I was around 11,” Malik said. “It kind of became a bit of a hobby or really more of an obsession for me. I made a bunch of websites that a lot of people were using when I was a teenager including people that lived in other countries, getting kind of international exposure.”
Malik got a scholarship to finish high school in the Netherlands and another one to go to art school at Bennington College in Vermont.
In the future he said he wanted to do work that combines cutting edge technology with creativity, and hopes to expand Jadu next year and build a team in Pakistan.