Strings is an internationally acclaimed Pakistani pop band comprising two members. The band was formed when four college students—Bilal Maqsood, Faisal Kapadia, Rafiq Wazir Ali and Kareem Bashir Bhoy—decided to form a band in 1988 in Karachi. In 1992, the quartet disbanded only to make a comeback with two of its members, Bilal and Faisal later in 2000. While the initial band was riding on the new wave of Pakistani pop music, the later formation ushered a new revival in the music industry of Pakistan.
Kapadia and Maqsood followed in the footsteps of Junoon and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and took their act across the border to India only to realise they already were a recognised band in the country as remixes of one of their earliest songs were played in clubs. As ambassadors for Pakistani pop music, the duo set out to conduct concerts all over the world thenceforth. Kapadia is the lead vocalist for the band, Maqsood acts as the composer, guitarist and at times does vocals for a few songs.In 1990, the band came up with a follow-up album titled String 2. Maqsood realising that the band needed more exposure, advised that a music video be shot. He himself took charge of the direction of the video for the song, "Sar Kiye Yeh Pahaar" and handed it to the STN to be aired on their show. The video was played for a minute on the channel in their hour long show and with not many new videos from competing artists, Maqsood's directorial début was an instant success. This decision proved beneficial and Sar Kiye Yeh Pahaar became a nation-wide hit overnight.The hype was short-lived and the quartet soon disappeared from the face of the Pakistani pop. Kapadia returned to USA while Maqsood got himself a job in an advertising agency as the creative director.
It had almost been eight years since the band had last seen fame and their prolonged hibernation it seemed had erased the marks they had left on the music industry disappeared. The year 2000 saw another shake in the Pakistani music industry and the duo saw an interest in joining the bandwagon. Maqsood and Kapadia then decided on forming the band. They recorded a song, "Duur" and the duo asked their friend Jamshed Mehmood, known to them as Jami, to direct the video for the song. The video for "Duur" was distributed to all the stations that aired on the tube and became an instant hit hailing their comeback.
In June 2004, before they could record their next song, Najaney Kyun, Strings were approached by the heads at Columbia TriStar Films of India, a sister company to their record label company to include the song in the soundtrack of the Urdu version of the epic Hollywood blockbuster Spider-Man. With their massive presence in the Indian pop music scene, Strings were mistaken for an Indian band.
Soon afterwards, they were approached by an Indian director shooting Zinda, a remake of the classic South Korean film Oldboy to do a soundtrack. Maqsood composed a song titled Yeh Hai Meri Kahani for the movie. For the video, the duo had to act alongside two A-list actors from Bollywood. It was here that the duo became good friends with John Abraham and Sanjay Dutt and would later appear in more ventures together. Strings is one of the few Pakistani bands/singers to achieve international fame. Their popularity is attributed to the significantly different approach to their music and lyrics.
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