Bangladeshi-Canadian filmmaker Iqbal H. Chowdhury, joint winner of the New Currents competition on the 2023 Busan International Film Festival for “The Wrestler,” has his subsequent movie on the pageant’s Asian Project Market (APM).
Set in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka within the early 2000s, the movie will comply with a movie journalist looking for a controversial B-movie star within the chaos of a push to ban vulgar films.
“The concept for ‘Dhakar Nagin’ got here from one in every of my essay displays at York College in Toronto. My MA thesis centered on common Bangladeshi cinema, and I wrote an essay analyzing the varied dance strikes of Bangladeshi movie stars as part of my course curriculum. Watching Bangla movies within the cinema has at all times been a responsible pleasure of mine. Nagin [snake] musicals, battle scenes, dance numbers, and melodrama created an thrilling expertise for audiences in Bangladeshi cinema halls. Rising up with that type of cinema, I miss these extraordinary components and the sense of responsible pleasure they offered. That nostalgia might be what impressed me to jot down this movie,” Chowdhury advised Selection.
A nagin musical refers to a style of south Asian movies that characteristic a storyline a couple of shape-shifting serpent lady, generally known as a nagin or naagin. The nagin is a legendary creature from folklore, one usually looking for revenge or love. These movies usually mix components of fantasy, folklore, drama and romance.
“Quite than conveying a selected message, I need to invite my viewers into my extraordinary ‘world.’ My problem is to make that world distinctive and astonishing,” Chowdhury mentioned.
Chowdhury is producing alongside Tuhin Tamijul for Mayer Doa Movies. Tamijul is one in every of Bangladesh’s most acclaimed cinematographers whose credit embody “The Wrestler” and Abdullah Mohammed Saad’s Cannes title “Rehana” and Rotterdam choice “Reside From Dhaka.”
The funds is between $250,000 and $300,000 and the plan is to start filming in mid-2025 relying on funding and different elements. The workforce is in search of co-productions, financing, manufacturing assist and pre-sales at APM.
“I’m very excited in regards to the movie’s material. We developed a robust understanding whereas engaged on “The Wrestler.” I’m assured in Iqbal’s means to deliver the movie to life with each ability and integrity,” Tamijul mentioned.
Iqbal H. Chowdhury, Tuhin Tamijul
Mayer Doa Movies
