Biography

Shivam M Thakkar

Chief Financial & Administrative Officer

Shivam M Thakkar — Chief Financial & Administrative Officer

Shivam Thakkar leads the financial, human resources and administrative functions of Muharraqi Studios, holding the commercial and operational side of the studio steady so that the creative and technical teams can concentrate on the work.

Role
Chief Financial & Administrative Officer
Responsibility
Finance, Human Resources, Administration
Based
Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
Education
Bachelor's degree; Government Diploma in Co-operative Accounting (GDC&A)
Also
Group CEO, Al Amanna Capital W.L.L.
Focus
Financial control, governance, people and process

Biography

His remit covers the full financial cycle of the studio: budgeting and forecasting, project costing and profitability, cash flow, billing and collections, statutory accounts and audit, and the contracts and procurement that sit behind them. In a business where every project is bespoke and no two production schedules are alike, the discipline is in pricing work accurately at the outset and tracking it honestly to delivery — so that a commitment made to a client is one the studio can stand behind commercially as well as creatively.

On the people and administration side, he is responsible for recruitment and onboarding, payroll, visa and labour compliance, policy and record-keeping, insurance, licensing, vendor relationships and the day-to-day running of the studio's premises and systems. Muharraqi Studios has always been a small studio by design, and that places a particular demand on administration: structure has to be real enough to be relied on, and light enough never to slow the work down.

Alongside his role at the studio, Shivam is Group CEO of Al Amanna Capital W.L.L., a diversified Bahrain-based group with interests spanning mobility, hospitality, real estate and food. That experience of running multi-entity operations — governance, controls, reporting and the commercial negotiation that comes with them — informs how he approaches the studio's own affairs. His view of the role is a straightforward one: sound numbers, clean paperwork and a well-looked-after team are not administrative overhead, they are what allows a twenty-two-year-old studio to keep taking on ambitious work with confidence.

Recognition

  • Chairman's Star Award for Project Management Contribution — Mr. Khalid Mohamed Kanoo, Chairman, Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo Group, 2013
  • Certificate of Appreciation for year-on-year contribution to the growth of the company — Dr. Faisal Khalid Kanoo, Chairman, Al Amanna Group
  • Best Contributor to Operations, BAYG — Mr. Mahmood Al Kadhem, Managing Director, Trans Auto Rental / Plus Group

The other biographies
A bright idea awaits you.
Muharraqi Studios
Enter the Studio
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Muharraqi Studios
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GCC & International · Based in Bahrain · Celebrating 22 Years

We build worlds before they exist.

Computer-generated imagery and visual effects for the region's most ambitious masterplans, brands and stories — crafted in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

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01 / PORTFOLIO

The galleries

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ARCHIVE
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02 / CAPABILITIES

Everything from pixel to plan.

A full-stack visual production house — we take a project from concept sketch through photoreal render, animation and immersive delivery.

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22nd Anniversary · 2004–2026
03 / THE STUDIO

Two decades of imagining the unbuilt.

Founded 2004

Muharraqi Studios began in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2004, at a time when computer-generated imagery in the Gulf was mostly imported. Twenty-two years later the studio works across CGI, visual effects, interactive technology and AI-assisted production, for clients across the Gulf and internationally — from developers and government bodies to architectural practices including OMA, SOM and Atkins.

The through-line is CityView: a proprietary interactive platform built in-house, now running on projects from a single residential quarter to NHC destinations measured in tens of square kilometres. It is the studio in one product — architecture, data, design, storytelling and interaction resolved into one system.

The method has not changed in twenty-two years. Select the work carefully. Build it properly. Stand behind it.

Our Philosophy

Accuracy is a form of respect.

Emotion is what gives accuracy meaning.

Heritage is living material—not a style.

Technology serves people, or it serves nothing.

And size has never defined us.

We are a small studio. We always have been. Clients often arrive expecting a team of a hundred. Instead, they find a handful of people—and the work of a hundred leaving the room.

From our first year, we have refused the idea that the size of a studio determines the scale of what it can imagine, understand, or carry. Islands. Masterplans. Cities. The memory of a nation. Nothing has ever been too large.

The Gulf is being built faster than it is being remembered. Our role is to shape what is coming while keeping what came before alive, accurate, and true within it.

Muharraqi Studios brand marks — 2004, 2010, 2017
2004
Established
22
Years · 2004–2026
Bahrain
Based in the Gulf
New System

CityView — real-time, interactive city visualization.

Walk a masterplan before a single foundation is poured. Our new CityView platform turns large-scale developments into live, explorable environments for stakeholders, buyers and the public.

Visitor exploring CityView on an interactive touch table
TRUSTED BY DEVELOPERS, GOVERNMENTS & AGENCIES ACROSS THE GULF
CLIENTS / SINCE 2004
Trusted by those shaping the Gulf.
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LET'S BUILD SOMETHING

Have a project in mind?

Tell us your idea and we'll show you how we can bring it to life.

Send us an email →
info@muharraqi-studios.com  ·  +973 3880 8055
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SERVICES · 01

Architectural Visualization

Twenty years of making buildings real before they exist.

We produce architectural imagery from Bahrain for developers, government authorities and architects across the Gulf. Masterplans, renders, interiors, animation.

Masterplans

Aerial and drop-down views that make a development legible at a glance. From a single waterfront plot to island developments measured in hundreds of square kilometres.

Renderings

Exterior and interior stills at presentation quality. Built for launches, sales galleries, board approvals, competitions and press.

Interiors

Full schemes with material, light and atmosphere resolved. Rooms that read as places, not furnished boxes.

Animation

Cinematic flythroughs and ground-level sequences, with the same lighting discipline as the stills.

Pre-concept

We don't need a finished design. Give us block massing, a site outline and a direction — we develop the architectural treatment and populate the ground plane. Clients arrive with no scheme and leave with something they can put in front of a board.

We are not executors.

Most studios receive a finished design and reproduce it. We question what doesn't read and propose what's missing. Architects have brought us their projects for two decades for exactly that reason.

Bahrain · Saudi Arabia · Qatar · delivered internationally

Where a project needs more than imagery, our work extends into CityView — real-time interactive visualization built on the same architectural foundation.
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SERVICES · 02

Animation

A building can be photographed. A film has to be built, one frame at a time.

Animation is where the model stops being an image and starts behaving like a place. The camera moves, light changes across the day, people cross the frame. It is the most expensive thing a studio can make and the only thing that shows a project as it will actually be experienced.

Brand and product films

Complete films built around a single idea — television commercials, launch films and corporate work. Concept, storyboard, production and finish in one place, rather than a model handed to someone else to film.

Architectural walkthroughs

The development experienced at eye level and from the air, from single buildings to infrastructure at national scale. The same models that produce the still renders, moved through in time.

Character animation

Characters built to perform, not to pose. Rigged for expression and weight, animated for advertising, title sequences and story work.

Visual effects and simulation

Effects work as part of the film rather than as a separate pass — atmosphere, destruction, crowd and environment work integrated where the shot needs it.

Motion graphics and titles

Logo animation, title sequences and graphic work for broadcast and presentation.

Twenty years of films that still play.

Bahrain · Saudi Arabia · Qatar · delivered internationally

Where a film needs the architecture resolved before the camera moves, it begins in Architectural Visualization — the same models and the same lighting discipline, produced under one roof.
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SERVICES · 03

Branding, Ads & Design

An identity is not a logo. It's the decision about what something is, made visible.

We design identities knowing exactly how they'll have to live — cast in metal, cut in stone, embroidered, moving on screen, reduced to sixteen pixels. An identity that only works in the presentation isn't finished.

Brand identity

Complete visual systems. Mark, typography, colour, application. Built from the position outward.

Heraldic crests & emblems

A rare specialism. Private estate crests, institutional emblems, arms of alliance. Historical literacy and protocol precision alongside design. Delivered as a detailed primary crest and a simplified secondary version — the same mark has to hold on a gate and on a letterhead.

Brand guidelines

The standards that keep an identity intact after handover. The document that decides whether a brand survives its third year.

Naming

Brand and product naming. Arabic and English.

Advertising & campaign

Concept, art direction, production. We build the imagery in-house, so the idea doesn't degrade between the pitch and the finished work.

Packaging & print

Physical application, specified for the material it will actually be made in.

Bilingual by instinct, not translation.

A mark that reads with authority in Latin type and collapses in Arabic script hasn't been designed. It's been half designed, then translated. We resolve both scripts together, from the start.

Bahrain · Saudi Arabia · Qatar · delivered internationally

Where a brand needs to be seen in the world, our film, CGI and interactive work carries it there — produced under one roof, by the studio that designed it.
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SERVICES · 04

Character Design

A character has to survive being looked at for years.

Most characters are drawn to fill a brief and forgotten when the campaign ends. The ones that last are built from a purpose — who they speak to, what they have to carry, how they behave when the brief changes. That decision happens before anything is drawn, and it is the one that determines whether the character is still working in five years.

Mascots and brand characters

Characters built to represent an organisation to its public. Designed to hold up across advertising, print, packaging and screen, and to stay recognisable when reduced, redrawn or handed to another team.

Concept and creature design

Original characters and creatures for film, games and story work. Sketch through to finished design, exploring silhouette, proportion and personality before anything is committed to three dimensions.

Modelling and digital sculpting

The sculpt is where the drawing becomes a thing with weight. Grounded in anatomy, detailed to the level the job needs — down to facial expression, fabric and individual hairs where the shot calls for it.

Rigging and performance

Characters built to move. Rigged for expression and articulation so the design holds up in animation rather than only in a still.

Full customisation

Every element open to direction — proportion, palette, costume, expression, level of realism. The character is built to a specification, not chosen from a range.

A character is a selling tool that people happen to love.

Bahrain · Saudi Arabia · Qatar · delivered internationally

Where a character has to perform rather than pose, the work continues into Animation — rigged, performed and finished by the studio that designed it.
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SERVICES · 05

Visual Effects

Making the impossible belong in the shot.

Visual effects extend what the camera captured without breaking its reality. We create and integrate the elements a production could not photograph — from environments and structures to crowds, atmosphere and physical events — matching them to the perspective, light, movement and texture of the original footage.

Matte painting

Painted environments and background worlds designed to become part of the shot. Photorealistic or deliberately stylised, every element follows the established visual language of the film.

Set extension

Extending a filmed location beyond what was physically built or available. A structure can rise beyond its original height, a street can continue beyond the frame, and a partial location can become a complete environment — matched to the camera, lens, perspective and light of the plate.

Crowd and object replication

Populating spaces with crowds, traffic, boats, fleets or repeated objects. Scale, distribution and movement are controlled so the scene feels occupied rather than artificially filled.

Simulation

Fire, water, smoke, dust, debris, destruction and weather created to respond to the scale and forces of the shot. The result must feel physically connected to the environment, not placed over it.

Compositing

The stage where live action, CGI, matte paintings, simulation and atmosphere become one image. Light, colour, focus, depth, edges, movement and grain are reconciled until every element belongs to the same shot.

The effect is finished when the shot feels whole.

Bahrain · Saudi Arabia · Qatar · delivered internationally

Where the effect has to carry a whole sequence, it is built alongside Animation — the same cameras, the same lighting, finished under one roof.
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SERVICES · 06

Digital Sculpting

Life begins with form.

Digital sculpting is where a drawing or reference becomes a form with structure, weight, surface and age. It defines the physical character of an asset before that asset moves into animation, rendering, real-time production or fabrication.

Character and creature sculpting

Human, animal and imagined forms developed through anatomy, observation and design intent. The structure must remain convincing from every angle, under different lighting and, where required, through movement.

Environment and architectural detail

Terrain, rock, stone, ornament, erosion and wear. These are the details that make an environment feel shaped by time, climate and use rather than newly generated by software.

Hard-surface and product form

Products, machinery and manufactured objects developed through controlled proportion, clean curvature and precise edges. Every surface must hold its shape and reflections correctly.

Detail and surface

Pores, folds, scars, fabric texture, chipped stone, worn edges and accumulated weathering. Detail is added where it strengthens the form and supports the distance of the final shot.

Sculpting for production

Assets prepared for what follows, including retopology, mapping, displacement, surface transfer and scale checks. The completed sculpt can move into rigging, animation, rendering, real-time use or physical production without being rebuilt.

Built to hold up — from every angle and through every stage.

Bahrain · Saudi Arabia · Qatar · delivered internationally

Where the sculpt has to perform, it carries directly into Character Design — rigged, animated and finished without being rebuilt.
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SERVICES · 06

Digital Art & Artificial Intelligence

Digital paintings for clients, and original concepts developed in the studio. The tools have changed many times over the years. The judgement behind them has not.

A finished piece is rarely made one way. Three-dimensional work, digital painting, retouching and enhancement, and now artificial intelligence all sit in the same pipeline, and a single image may pass through all of them. Which tool leads depends on what the picture needs, not on which is newest.

What holds it together is the same as it has always been: composition, drawing, colour, and knowing when a picture is finished. The tools accelerate the work. They do not decide it.

Every piece is made under direct creative control, and is not licensed for use in training, fine-tuning or generation by any AI system.
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SERVICES · 08

Web Design & Development

A website should remain useful after it launches.

We design and build websites as working communication tools, not frozen presentations. Content structure, visual design, performance and editing are considered together so the finished site can be maintained by the people who own it.

Corporate and studio websites

Clear, credible websites for organisations that need to communicate who they are and what they do. Structure, navigation, visual identity and development are handled as one connected process.

Project and portfolio websites

Image-led websites built around projects, galleries and case studies. Large visual collections are organised to load efficiently, remain easy to explore and work properly across different screen sizes.

Responsive by design

Every layout is considered from desktop to mobile from the beginning. Content, navigation, typography and imagery adapt without losing the character or hierarchy of the original design.

Content you control

Clients receive practical access to update agreed areas of the website. Projects, people, images and pages can be added, changed or removed within a structured system that protects the overall design.

Design and development together

The same team shapes the visual system and builds the finished website. What is approved in design remains connected to what is delivered in the browser.

Designed to be used. Built to remain useful.

Bahrain · Saudi Arabia · Qatar · delivered internationally

Where a site has to carry an identity rather than decorate one, it is built on the work of Branding, Ads & Design — the same studio, the same standards, one continuous process.
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SPECIAL PRODUCTS

Products built inside the studio.

CityView

CityView turns large-scale developments into live, explorable environments. Walk a masterplan before a single foundation is poured — built for stakeholders, buyers and the public.

www.cityview.co
CityView interactive touch table
A future of architectural visualization
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CONTACT

Let's talk about your project.

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Privacy
Looking for work with us? See the disciplines we work in
Studio
By appointment only
West Tower
Bahrain Financial Harbour
Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
Hours
Sunday – Thursday
9:00 – 18:00 AST
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Biography
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BIOGRAPHY

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In tribute · The Muharraqi artist lineage

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RECOGNITION
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CAREERS

We keep the door open.

You never know when it is time to cross paths.

We do not always have a role open. We are always interested in artists. If your work is good, we would rather know you now than go looking later.

Send us your reel or portfolio. We read what comes in. When a project needs a hand, or the studio grows into a new discipline, we start with the people whose work we already know.

Disciplines we work in
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Craft matters more than the software you use. Show us the work you are proudest of, not everything you have made.

Send your portfolio → Other enquiries info@muharraqi-studios.com
FILMS

Stories made for the dark.

Original films from the studio — posters first, films to follow.

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FILM

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COMING SOON
ABOUT THE FILM

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ABOUT THE PROJECT

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OUTCOME

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RELATED
NEWS & PRESS

News & Press

Interviews, features and studio events on record, newest first.

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{{ p.dateText }} ARCHIVED
Event, 13 March 2014

Muharraqi: Father & Son

Muharraqi: Father & Son exhibition

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Event, 30 March 2014

Mohammed Al Banki Cultural Personality of the Year Award

Mohammed Al Banki Cultural Personality of the Year Award

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Event, 19 January 2007

Muharraqi Studios Meets His Highness the Crown Prince

Muharraqi Studios meets HH the Crown Prince

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News, 31 March 2024

HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister Receives Khalid Abdulla Al Muharraqi

HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister receives Khalid Abdulla Al Muharraqi at Riffa Palace

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Event, 1 May 2015

A Painting for Ghanim Al Muftah

The painting commissioned by HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa for Ghanim Al Muftah

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Event, 2020

The Royal Family Tree Presented to HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at the illuminated royal family tree panel, 2020

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The updated work, presented in 2025 →
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Event, 15 February 2025

The Royal Family Tree, Updated and Presented Again

The updated digital family tree of Bahrain's royal family, 2025

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The first presentation, in 2020 →
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CGI & VFX studio · Computer-generated imagery and visual effects since 2004.

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©2026 Muharraqi-Studios W.L.L. · West Tower, Bahrain Financial Harbour, Manama. · v1.2
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 Muharraqi Studios