DUBAI: Emirati entrepreneur and talk show host Anas Bukhash’s series “#ABTalks” has been making waves online.
The show, which airs once a week on YouTube, invites celebrities, influencers, public figures and entrepreneurs for a conversation that focuses on their personal lives.
Bukhash told Arab News that the series aims to show “the human behind the title.”
“I think we are missing this kind of content everywhere in the world, not only here in the Middle East, and that’s why it’s celebrated,” he said.
Bukhash developed the concept of the show four years ago. He pitched it to an organization that planned to air it on TV, but “that didn’t work out,” he said. So, he turned to the digital marketing agency Bukhash Brothers, which he founded in 2014 along with his siblings.
“The moment I had a strong multimedia team, I was like, OK, now I can do a show my way, with my rules, and the things that I want to deliver,” he said.
In more than 50 episodes over the past two years, Bukhash has interviewed a long list of guests, including Saudi actor Muhannad Al-Hamdi, Lebanese influencer Karen Wazen, Tunisian actress and model Rym Breidy, US-Iraqi beauty mogul Mona Kattan, Egyptian actress and model Tara Emad and American-Belarusian entrepreneur Gary Lee.
Interviewees sometimes get emotional, which Bukhash believes is healthy because they “celebrate themselves being vulnerable.”
“If somebody cried in front of you, that means their soul is naked,” he said.
“Crying is a very personal thing for all of us. You don’t just cry everyday in front of everybody. So, when somebody allows you to get to that core, I find it a huge compliment to the show. They are brave to show that much emotion.”
And if the tables were to turn, and Bukhash was a guest on “#ABTalks”?
“I would love to discuss fatherhood. Becoming a father was a milestone. I think that played with my heart. It changed a lot of things. It softened me,” he said.
Meanwhile, other public figures Bukhash would like to interview include South African comedian Trevor Noah, Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan.
