city Dhaka: Last News

Naman Ramachandran Bangladeshi filmmakers Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and Nusrat Imrose Tisha‘s “Something Like an Autobiography” has been acquired for U.K. broadcast by Channel 4. The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Busan International Film Festival, where was in the prestigious Jiseok competition.

Naman Ramachandran A first trailer has been unveiled for Bangladeshi filmmakers Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and Nusrat Imrose Tisha‘s “Something Like an Autobiography.” The film has its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival, where it is in the prestigious Jiseok competition. The film follows Dhaka-based married couple, the filmmaker Farhan (Farooki) and actor Tithi (Tisha), who are under societal pressure to have a baby. Tithi conceives and towards the end of her pregnancy term an incident occurs that throws into sharp relief some realities of contemporary Bangladeshi society.

Naman Ramachandran SonyLIV has acquired exclusive streaming rights to acclaimed Bangladeshi films “Hawa” and “Saturday Afternoon” from Reliance Entertainment and Continental Entertainment PTE Ltd (CEPL). Directed by Mejbaur Rahman Sumon, “Hawa” follows the journey of an all-men team on a fishing trawler, whose routine is disrupted when they haul in a mysterious catch. The cast is led by hugely popular star Chanchal Chowdhury and includes Nazifa Tushi, Sariful Islam Razz, Sumon Anowar, Nasir Uddin Khan and Shohel Mondol. The film was Bangladesh’s entry to the Oscars and is one of the highest grossers from the country having also found distribution in India, Singapore and the Middle East. It will premiere July 7 on SonyLIV.

Naman Ramachandran Singapore-based film marketing and distribution firm Continental Entertainment Pte. Ltd. (CEPL), which holds global distribution rights for Bangladeshi auteur Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s “Saturday Afternoon,” will release the film in the U.S. and Canada through Reliance Entertainment. The Bengali-and-English-language film takes its cue from the brutal terrorist attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka in 2016, which took place on a quiet Saturday afternoon and left more than 20 people dead. It had considerable festival play, winning awards at Fukuoka, Moscow and Vesoul. The film was initially banned and had finally been cleared for release in January after a four year struggle with the Bangladesh Film Censor Board. However Bangladesh’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting appears to have taken a U turn and the situation remains fluid. Consequently, the film will open in the U.S. and Canada on March 10 before its Bangladesh release. It will also be released in other countries in subsequent months.

Naman Ramachandran Zahan Kapoor debuts as the lead in “Faraaz,” which has its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival’s Thrill strand. The film is based on based on an incident in July 2016, where armed gunmen held up customers at the Holey Artisan Bakery for 12 hours, before killing 20 of them and two of the bakery staff. Two police officers and five of the gunmen died in a shootout. “Faraaz” is directed by Hansal Mehta (“Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story”) and produced by T-Series, part of its 100-film slate, Anubhav Sinha’s Benaras Mediaworks (“Article 15”) and Mahana Films.

Naman Ramachandran The BBC has revealed wide-ranging savings proposals across its World Service that will result in the closure of 382 positions and the relocation of journalists from London to Asia and Africa. The move is part of a push towards digital and a wider savings plan. Under the proposals, some half of the BBC’s 41 language services will be digital only. The relocation proposals include the Thai service moving from London to Bangkok, the Korean service to Seoul, the Bangla service to Dhaka and the “Focus On Africa” TV bulletin to broadcast from Nairobi. “Changing audience needs around the world – with more people accessing news digitally – go alongside a challenging financial climate. High inflation, soaring costs, and a cash-flat licence fee settlement have led to tough choices across the BBC, and the BBC’s international services need to make a saving of £28.5 million [$30.7 million], as part of the wider £500 million of annual savings and reinvestment to make the BBC digital-led,” the BBC said in a statement.

Naman Ramachandran Top Bangladeshi actor Nusrat Imrose Tisha is in Cannes to promote her new film “Mujib: The Making of a Nation.” A trailer for the film, a biopic of the late Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was unveiled at the Cannes Film Market.Popularly known as Bangabandhu (friend of Bengal), Rahman was one of the founders of the Awami League party and led the movement for political autonomy for East Pakistan and the subsequent formation of independent Bangladesh in 1971. He served as the first president and then the first prime minister of Bangladesh until he, his wife and sons were assassinated in an army coup in 1975.

Naman Ramachandran Acclaimed Bangladeshi director Rubaiyat Hossain, known for her powerful women-centric films, has a new project participating in the Berlinale Co-Production Market and is launching a female filmmaker grant.Her Berlinale co-production market project, “The Difficult Bride,” follows Novera, a bride-to-be in present-day Dhaka who is in love with the groom and the idea of a fairytale wedding, but secretly struggles with her body, which does not seem to comply with the wedding rituals. She makes continuous trips to the beauty salon and uses home remedies to “cure” her body.

Naman Ramachandran Spanish company Soul Pictures has boarded international sales on Indian filmmaker Prasun Chatterjee’s debut feature “Two Friends” (“Dostojee”).Set in 1992-93, when Hindu-Muslim tensions escalated in India in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Bombay bomb blasts and percolated down to a remote village on the India-Bangladesh border, the film follows the friendship of two eight-year-old boys. Palash, the son of a Hindu Brahmin and Safikul, whose father is a Muslim weaver, are best friends, but fate intervenes.The film world premiered at the 2021 BFI London Film Festival, played at the Dhaka International Festival and will play at the Goteborg Film Festival from this Friday.

fire with passengers inside.The tragic inferno began onboard at 3am on Friday morning (9pm UK time) while the vessel was travelling through a river in Bangladesh's Jhalokati district, about 200 km south of the capital Dhaka.However, reports of the devastating blaze's casualties have only recently been reported.Bhalakathi Deputy Commissioner Md Zohor Ali told local media that 70 people had been admitted to the Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital in nearby Barishal, while estimates later in the night stood at over 100.Local police chief Moinul Islam told AFP that the death count could be higher, saying: "The three-storey Obhijan 10 caught fire mid-river. "We have recovered 32 bodies.

Richard Kuipers Female rage is powerfully distilled and expertly distributed in “Rehana Maryam Noor,” a riveting social drama about a female doctor who demands justice in a case of sexual assault at a Dhaka medical school. The second feature by Abdullah Mohammad Saad (“Live From Dhaka”) features a superb lead performance by Azmeri Haque Badhon as the medico whose relentless determination drives her toward reckless obsession.

Marta Balaga Kamar Ahmad Simon started his “water trilogy” with “Are You Listening!,” about a family living on the coast of Bangladesh, struggling to keep their land from flooding. “Day After…”, the second part, conceived all the way back in 2013, has just celebrated its world premiere at IDFA’s international competition after being selected for the 2017 Cannes Festival L’Atelier co-production forum.

Naman Ramachandran Bangladeshi filmmaker Nuhash Humayun’s “Moving Bangladesh” has received NT$2.5 million ($89,800) from the Taipei Film Fund. With this, the TIFFCOM selected project has achieved 60% of its $659,000 budget and aims to raise the rest in Tokyo.In “Moving Bangladesh,” sick of being stuck in traffic — and in life — a struggling middle-class Bangladeshi entrepreneur creates a motorcycle-based ride sharing app that may change transport in developing cities such as Dhaka. But first he must overcome his family’s skepticism and a hostile political environment.Humayun’s credits include a segment of anthology film “Sincerely Yours, Dhaka,” which premiered at Busan in 2018 and was Bangladesh’s entry to the Oscars.

Naman Ramachandran Abu Shahed Emon, a Bangladeshi filmmaker with close ties to Busan, is back at the festival with “No Ground Beneath the Feet,” directed by debutant Mohammad Rabby Mridha. He braved two weeks of quarantine to be in Busan in person.The film, which premieres at the festival’s ‘A Window on Asian Cinema’ strand, follows the travails of an ambulance driver in Dhaka and the struggles of his wife in a slowly shrinking river delta, while tackling universal themes of climate change, poverty and societal ills.

Daily Star's biggest headlines straight to your inbox!Six terrorists have been sentenced to death for hacking two gay rights activists to death.The Islamist militants were responsible for the brutal murders of the two men in Bangladesh in April 2016.Xulhaz Mannan, 39, the editor of Bangladesh's first magazine aimed at LGBTQ+ people, and actor Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, 26, were hacked to death in the Asian country's capital Dhaka.The vicious attack was claimed by Ansar Al Islam, the regional arm of Al Qaeda.The killings were part of a series of attacks on atheist bloggers, academics and other minorities that shocked the country and led many to go into hiding or flee abroad.Six of the eight defendants were found guilty of murder and given a death

Naman Ramachandran It has been a rapid escalation on to the world stage for Abdullah Mohammad Saad, one of the brightest young filmmakers from Bangladesh, with his sophomore effort “Rehana” selected in the Un Certain Regard strand at the Cannes Film Festival.Saad debuted with the searing “Live From Dhaka” (2016), a portrayal of a man increasingly desperate to get out of Bangladesh’s capital city, which won top prizes at the Singapore International Film Festival and played at Rotterdam and Locarno.

Daily Star's biggest headlines straight to your inbox!At least 52 people have been killed and 50 injured in a fire in Bangladesh, police say.Many leapt for their lives from upper floors in the complex in the industrial town of Rupganj, near Dhaka.Bodies were being taken out as the food factory blaze continued to rage 24 hours after it broke out on Thursday.Local reports suggest the fire spread quickly from the ground floor of the six-storey building due to the presence of chemicals and plastic bottles.Bodies were seen being taken out by rescuers as the building continued to burn nearly 24 hours later on Friday.Eighteen fire crews were struggling to douse the fire at the Hashem Foods and Beverage factory at 2.15pm.Police and witnesses said

Naman Ramachandran Streamer ZEE5 Global has added to its growing roster of Bangladeshi content with series “Ladies & Gentlemen,” created by eminent Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (“No Bed of Roses”).The eight-episode series is the story of an ordinary girl and her emotional journey to becoming the voice of every working woman in Bangladesh.It is directed by Farooki and co-directed by Mahmudul Islam (“Sincerely Yours, Dhaka”).Farooki is Bangladesh’s most lauded filmmaker internationally. His “Television” (2012), which closed the Busan Film festival, won the jury grand prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards among numerous other accolades, and “Saturday Afternoon” (2019) won awards at Moscow, Vesoul and Fukuoka.

Naman Ramachandran Berlin-based sales agent Films Boutique will represent worldwide rights for Cannes Un Certain regard selection “Rehana.”The film, originally titled “Rehana Maryam Noor,” is written and directed by Bangladesh’s Abdullah Mohammad Saad and produced by Singapore’s Jeremy Chua.Saad’s debut feature “Live from Dhaka” won best director and best actor at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2016, and went on to screen at other festivals including Rotterdam and Locarno.Chua is a festival veteran whose producing credits include 2016 Cannes title “A Yellow Bird.” The project was made with the support of the Doha Film Institute and the Busan Asian Cinema Fund.

LABELS & PUBLISHERSWarner Music has named Alfonso Perez-Soto as President of Emerging Markets. “I’m super proud to take on this new role and truly excited by its scope”, he says.

A Bangladeshi satellite television station has hired the country’s first transgender news anchor, saying it hopes the appointment will help change society. Tashnuva Anan Shishir, who previously worked as a rights activist and actress, debuted on Dhaka-based Boishakhi TV on Monday, International Women’s Day.