Home ›› 12 Nov 2021 ›› Show Biz
Bangladeshi filmmaker Abdullah Mohammad Saad has won the Jury Grand Prize for directing the film ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ at the 14 Asia Pacific Screen Awards while actress Azmeri Haque Badhon secured the best actress award for her portrayal of ‘Rehana’ in the film.
The announcement came on the eve of the local release of the highly-anticipated film ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ which was screened at the prestigious ‘Un Certain Regard’ section at the 74th Cannes Film Festival in July this year. The film is competing in Oscars 2022 as Bangladesh’s official entry under the ‘Best International Feature Film Category’.
Makers of the film came up with the announcement of winning the APSA accolades at a press briefing held at the Bangladesh Film Archive Auditorium in the capital’s Agargaon on Thursday.
In Dhaka, ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ can be watched at the Mohakhali, Mirpur and Bashundhara City branches of Star Cineplex, Blockbuster Cinemas in Jamuna Future Park, Shyamoli Cinema and Modhumita from today. Outside the capital, the film will be screened at Sugandha Cinema Hall and Silver Screen in Chattogram, CineScope in Narayanganj and Modhuban in Bogura.
At the press briefing, actress Badhon, who played the role of ‘Rehana’, an assistant professor at a private medical college, said, “If I talk about the influence of ‘Rehana’ on me, I will say that ‘Rehana’ has influenced equally my personal life and professional life.”
Talking about his journey in making ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’, director Saad said that he was working on the materials for another project after his first film ‘Live from Dhaka’, in early 2017, which he discontinued later and started working on Rehana. “I started thinking about the character ‘Rehana’ from a long time ago, before my first film. Somehow, I did not get it clear about the progress of the character and the story at that time. I could not figure it out at that time. Then I did ‘Live from Dhaka’. Afterwards, I began putting my concentration on Rehana.”
Saad also disclosed details about how he was influenced to create the character. “There are many influences which I said earlier. It was influenced a lot by my sisters. I have three elder sisters. I grew up seeing them. I saw their transformations. How they dealt with my eldest sister. I observed the changes, I saw them when they entered into their professional life. Their journey has always been something inspiring and influencing to me. I always have wanted to do something from that feeling,” he elaborated about his inspiration for the character ‘Rehana’.
Regarding the casting of Badhon in the film, he said, “When I met her and interviewed her, I saw her approaches, and she looked right. She got engaged with the project since its very early stage, which was very inspiring.”
On the plot and nature of his films, Saad said, “I am very interested in working on the complexities in human nature. I was very fascinated by the complexities. And the crises originate from the complexities. I think, those left impact on my films.”
“It was a journey of four years. I started writing the script in mid-2017 which came to an end in 2019. After coming to the fifth draft, I decided to go on production,” he said about the project.
