Founder & Leadership
FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR
Aamir Farooq Rather
Founder & Managing Director, AQUAPLEX®
Reimagining what a place can become.
Born and raised in Srinagar, Aamir Farooq Rather sees possibility where others see a familiar setting. He founded Aquaplex Entertainment Private Limited to bring imagination, immersive technology and engineering together—creating destinations people do more than visit; they experience.
His vision is to give heritage landmarks and underused venues a new life in the public imagination: bringing forward the stories, culture and character already within a place.
THE VISION
Start with the place. Build something people remember.
The strongest experience does not compete with its setting; it makes the setting matter more. Aamir’s approach begins with a destination’s story and character, then brings creative development, media, light, sound and infrastructure together around the people who will experience it.
FLAGSHIP INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Floating Cinema®: cinema, reimagined on water.
Aamir’s vision found a defining expression in Floating Cinema®, AQUAPLEX®’s original intellectual property. Conceived in 2021 and launched on Dal Lake, it invited audiences to watch from shikaras, making the water and surrounding landscape part of the cinematic experience. The idea captures the AQUAPLEX® philosophy: make the destination part of the story.
See the place anew
Begin with the history, landscape and public life already present—and discover what deserves to be experienced.
Turn vision into a living experience
Bring story, media, light, sound, interaction and infrastructure together as one coherent destination experience.
Make technology mean something
Choose and integrate tools for the visitor, setting and purpose, so innovation serves the experience.
AN ENGINEERING MINDSET
Imagination, grounded in how things work.
Aamir’s engineering background shapes a simple standard: an experience should be compelling to feel and carefully integrated to work. At AQUAPLEX®, that balance connects creative ideas to real places—and places to the people who gather there.
Engineering imagination with purpose
Aamir brings an engineering education and a belief that ambitious ideas should be carefully integrated to work in real places. At AQUAPLEX®, creative development, media, lighting, sound and infrastructure are considered together. The aim is to make an experience compelling to visitors and thoughtfully connected to the destination that hosts it.
That point of view informs the company’s focus on heritage and public spaces. Rather than treating a landmark as a backdrop, the work begins with its history, setting and cultural character. Storytelling and technology can then help people encounter the place in a new way while keeping the destination itself at the centre.
Floating Cinema®: a defining expression of the vision
Conceived in 2021 and launched on Dal Lake, Floating Cinema® brought audiences together for open-air screenings from shikaras. The concept reflects Aamir’s approach to experience engineering: use the natural setting as part of the experience, and let the place shape how people gather, watch and remember. Read more about the Floating Cinema® story.
Founder’s vision in practice
For Aamir Farooq Rather, a destination is more than a location for an attraction. Its architecture, landscape, stories and public life can shape the experience itself. That belief guides AQUAPLEX®’s work: begin with the character of the place, then bring storytelling, creative development and engineering together around the people who will encounter it.
Floating Cinema® is one expression of that vision, while AQUAPLEX Crown brings a musical fountain, floating stage, open-air cinema and visitor facilities together at Bagh-e-Bahu. These projects reflect a wider ambition to make underused venues meaningful places to gather, discover and return to. Explore the project work or read the story of Floating Cinema®. A Deccan Herald profile also discusses Aamir’s waterfront concept.