Interview with Aidar Kasymov, founder of the film production company LightSolution, Kazakhstan.

– Aidar, where are you from? Who were your parents and what did they do?

I was born in the city of Tselinograd, which is now the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana. My mother always worked in government structures: she was an auditor for the Ministry of Finance. Unfortunately, my parents are no longer with me. My father was ill and passed away very early, when I was still a child. My mother passed away when I was 22 years old. I only have one sister left, she is 6 years older than me. We have a good relationship.

– I’m sorry to hear that. What were you doing when this tragedy happened?

I worked in various enterprises. My work history has been quite turbulent. And when the tragedy happened, I was working for a private company, just before entering the television industry.

– How did you get into television, what pushed you?

Perhaps just by chance. Now I can say – a fortunate, fateful one. There were no prerequisites for this.

– What school did you attend?

I attended a regular comprehensive school. By the way, I did well in school, I was an excellent student until the 6th grade, then I became an average student. After school, I entered the Railway College, specializing in “track machines.” I had a whole dynasty of relatives who were railway workers. Plus, it was easy to get a scholarship there because there was no money for tuition in the family. I even received a scholarship, it was 1300 tenge at that time. I also managed to work as a gas station attendant.

– Did your career at the gas station not work out?

No, I worked there for about a year. I also engaged in entrepreneurial activities during my college years. I bought and sold things here and there, it was that kind of time. I worked as a loader. My studies started to suffer because I had to work night shifts. Then I started skipping classes.

– How was your academic performance? It’s one thing when a person studies where they like, and, on the other hand, where they wouldn’t really want to.

I can say that I liked the dynamics: the environment, the society, and some responsibility towards my group, because I was a class leader and actively participated in organizational matters. I motivated my classmates to receive scholarships because I also received one myself. I had a very good relationship with the teachers, I negotiated with them. I like the process itself rather than specific subjects. I had a different mindset. I knew I wouldn’t work on the railway, I just needed to finish what I started and enter adult life.

– What was the next step after college?

When I was studying, I understood that I definitely wouldn’t work in my field. So after graduation, I became a driver. I already had a car then, my mom helped me, thanks to her. I got a job as a driver for a company owned by a very good person. I didn’t stay there long.

Then I got a job at another company. Actually, I had more than 14 jobs listed in my work history, so I won’t remember them all now. I’ll mention only the main ones.

My first job was as a gas station attendant, then I became a driver, then I got into trade. First, I worked for Adidas as a storekeeper. And in 9 months, I was promoted to store manager. I was the youngest store manager in Kazakhstan. And I was given other stores to manage in Karaganda: Adidas and Reebok. At that time, I started managing them, brought the stores to good performance. I was praised a lot and offered to move to Almaty to manage other stores. I didn’t want to move every time, so I quit, moved to Astana. My boss from the previous job found me at my new address in Astana and offered me a good job at an insurance company. I headed the sales department there for a while.

Then I opened my own individual entrepreneur with friends in several areas: insurance, real estate, delivery. But it didn’t work out, it’s very difficult to do business with friends. We weren’t ready for that at the time. So, before it was too late, we all went our separate ways on good terms.

And when I was free, my mom called: “Son, the military enlistment office came.” I signed the summons, although according to family composition and vision, I didn’t qualify. But I really wanted to serve, and far away from home. I just wanted to test myself.

So, in the fall of 2009, I joined the air defense forces. After some time, I became a senior SURN operator; I left the reserve with the rank of sergeant. In the fall of 2010, I returned home. The army left me with positive impressions, I never understood people who say it’s a waste of time. If you don’t gain anything useful from the process, then time wasted can be attributed to many processes and not just the army.

– When did you “turn” to television?

Not immediately. After the army, I continued to work in private organizations. I joined “Kazmedia” as a sales representative, selling video cameras and surveillance systems. But as soon as I entered that building… you could say it was love at first sight. I realized that this was my place, no matter how or who, I knew for sure that I wanted to stay here. Although I didn’t know anything at all, just how to sell.

Later on, I found out what filming vacancies they had. At that time, my friend worked there, and he was able to coordinate me, where and to whom to apply for employment. I realized that I always wanted to be on set. And so, I got a job in the studio department. Coming in a suit and tie, I gladly agreed to change everything. I was hired as a lighting technician in the studio department, a person responsible for lighting equipment on TV programs.

Later, of course, I wanted more, I was interested in the technical parameters of light, cameras, and other equipment. I showed myself in a positive light and soon became the head lighting technician. This is a specialist who can write official notes, orders, so the responsibility here is much higher.

Then I took the initiative: during a trip to Moscow to Ostankino, I gained experience, upon my return, I presented a scheme to the general director, he really liked it, and we created a special lighting department according to my terms of reference, increased staff. I wrote job descriptions for all positions that were in the personnel department at that time. Later, since 2015, I have headed this department. When all the tasks were already completed, it became calm, even boring. And I always wanted dynamics.

– Where did this desire for change take you?

To entrepreneurship. Before “Kazmedia,” I opened several different companies, in sales, of course, it wasn’t successful, there were big losses and financial losses. When I was working at “Kazmedia,” I decided to try my hand at entrepreneurship again. And my colleague and I opened the Light Solution company for renting lighting equipment. For two years, things weren’t going very well, it turned out it was impossible to simultaneously work at “Kazmedia” and run my own business. So I decided to leave employment and develop my business.

– Weren’t you afraid to take risks?

Working as an employee is great, of course. It’s a stable income, weekends, planned vacations, status. But… I don’t know why it didn’t suit me. Probably, it just became boring. We created a department, streamlined all the work. And I stopped seeing where to move on from there.

Yes, I was scared. My wife was worried, we had financial obligations at that time. And here I am refusing a stable income. Of course, I was scared. And I had to work a lot, including physically, meeting with people, signing contracts, working on the set. There were even funny cases when clients from the set called the company director – and it was my phone ringing, the employee on the same set. But we succeeded!

– How large is your order volume?

At the beginning, the orders were small, and we had a little equipment. Now the entire warehouse is filled with professional equipment. And we work throughout Kazakhstan. We have everything: a green chroma key area, a white cyclorama, a makeup room, suspension systems. We work as a studio, presenting our own location.

For the past three months, we’ve been in production. We rented premises, hired staff. Now our company includes several specialties: camera mechanics, scriptwriters, editors, directors, lighting technicians, graphic designers, sound engineers. So, we have covered the full cycle and are now a production company. We now organize our orders and volume ourselves.

The company has significantly expanded. We started with just two of us, my partner and me. Later, we had two more partners, now already friends, and since then we have been working as a team of four, four founders. We are both friends and business partners.

– How do you work with friends? After all, business is usually separate from friendship.

The people I work with now are, first of all, my former colleagues. So these relationships are only now becoming friendly. We clearly distributed everything in one day, and now the work is going very well. Having bitter past experience, we approached this preparedly, discussed roles and certain rules of interaction.

– What are the near-term development prospects for your company?

We want to develop cinema. Currently, we are engaged in film production. I want to develop the film industry specifically in Astana, my hometown, it’s just beginning to emerge there, and I want to be involved in laying this foundation. We have a professional community, we meet, discuss, share ideas. We are building this foundation. It’s a big responsibility, and it’s very motivating.

In February, we are launching a full-length film. The goal for the future is to enter the arena with full-length films of our own production.

– How has your personal life turned out?

I am a happy husband, a happy father. I have a wonderful wife. We’ve been married for over 10 years. We met as teenagers, I fell in love with her at first sight. I was 19, she was 16. My wife always supports me in any endeavor, and I highly value that in her. We are now a family of three, with our son Altair. I am a happy person.

– What achievement in your career do you consider the most significant?

It’s my environment, society, friends, colleagues, family. I don’t have people around me whom I wouldn’t want to communicate with. I cherish them all very much!