South Asian Music's Booming Beat Drives A Mogul in the Making

"I'll be very supportive of him. We had a wonderful time working together," said Muhammad Mohsen Bashir, who organized a small concert, featuring the group Legacy, at a Springfield restaurant on New Year's Eve last year. "He made phone calls for us, did online marketing, sent out fliers. He learned a lot from us and got exposure to the way we do business."

At school, Iqbal is just as fervent, sometimes without being practical.

"He's off the charts compared to the normal teenager. His mind is whirring with ideas. If I come in the cafeteria and just stroll around and talk to students, he'll come and talk to me about his latest plan," Woodbridge Principal Alan C. Ross said.

Iqbal, who said he gets a mix of A's, B's and C's, knows he lacks experience but wants to be respected. Whatever his business ultimately becomes, he hopes to be a central point in a large community of artists and media types -- a job that gives him entree into the private circles of celebrities and a platform to forge connections with like-minded people.

"I'm taking a first step. Every little maneuver I do, I'm getting closer to the jackpot, as in being a next Bill Gates or the Google boys. They're my idols," he said. "Sometimes, I feel people may view me wrongly. I take this seriously. I want to be more of a role model, and I want to encourage young people like myself."

Now, he hopes, he's on the verge of finally operating in the black. He's been spending his summer in his Woodbridge bedroom/office, calling concert organizers in Atlanta, Berkeley, Calif., Chicago, Houston and Miami, all while relaying possible gig sites to the London agent of the Bombay Rockers, who, of course, are based in Copenhagen.

Iqbal is hoping that the Bombay Rockers agree to make him their promoter for one or more cities when they hit smaller venues in the United States. The group regularly fills 50,000-seat venues in Pakistan and India.

Iqbal easily can reveal his youth when dealing with the professionals. One day recently, Chai Desai, himself only 19, told him that he was hesitant to book the Bombay Rockers for a gig in San Jose, because the date was a week before the band was to play in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Desai wants to maintain good relations with promoters in those cities, so he doesn't want to steal from an already small pool of potential audience members. He asked Iqbal whether the Bombay Rockers could judge an a cappella contest involving South Asian university groups and perhaps perform a song or two afterward.

Iqbal was game. He hung up and swiveled around to his laptop and e-mailed Hogan, the band's agent, amid the shouts of his sister calling his name from downstairs. "Hello Steve, Well I got Good news and some bits of bad news," he began. "Good news is that San Jose wants Bombay Rockers for the 12th, but not for a concert, but for a Archipelago competition."

Swivel chairs and all, Iqbal is just a teenager who spent the past few months holed up in a summer school algebra II class and working at the teen-trendy Hollister Co. clothing store at Potomac Mills.

There, as pop songs play on the digital jukebox, he enters an entirely different universe, chatting with people his own age, folding marked-down jeans and earnestly pointing teenage girls to the "Bettys" side of the store and the guys to the "Dudes" side of the store.

At Woodbridge High, he is known by the nickname Ricochet because of the way he darts from idea to idea. Two years ago, he started a Muslim student association at the school. Last year, he worked for months building a mock-up of a student magazine, which he is still lobbying to get approved.

Iqbal feels most comfortable when he's networking for Huqa Entertainment. One night recently, at the Pakistan Day Festival at George Mason, he passed the time walking aimlessly through the halls with friends but then cut out frequently to pass out business cards to anyone with a booth -- the imported-rice distributor, the local clothing salesman, or the professional sound and lighting guys.

At one point, he found Brijinder "B.J." Singh, managing partner for a company called eventEQ, which was operating the lights and the sound. While the music thumped in the darkened arena, he peppered Singh with questions about how he does business. As he was finishing, Iqbal couldn't help but ask one more.

"Do you take summer interns?"