I think ‘Hawa’ has already reached its audience: Sumon

Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s much-awaited film ‘Hawa’ will be released on July 29. As it’s his debut film as a director, Sumon seems very excited about it. In a conversation with The Business Post’s Purba Zannat, Mejbaur Rahman Sumon talked about his debut film, his experience, work, and a lot more

What do you want to say about the film and how was the experience?

The film ‘Hawa’ is based on the sea. Many doubted whether we could shoot the film or not, as when it comes to technology, we lag behind a lot. Based on this situation, with almost zero support, we went into the sea to shoot the film. It was only possible because we all believed ‘Hawa’ was our own film and we had to make it no matter what. Without this mental strength, it would not have been possible to shoot the film. Even when we sat in the editing panel, it was hard for us to believe that we went into the sea even during storms; how we fell into the storm while doing the sound takes; why we even took the risks of going into the sea at night. This is possible for fishermen, but how we made it through this gives us goosebumps still.

What is the story behind the song ‘Shada Shada Kala Kala’?

I posted the backstory in one of my Facebook posts, and by now most people know the story. When I was a university student ‘Shada Shada Kala Kala’ was the song Hashim Mahmud used to sing on campus and was quite famous back then and till now the song is well known by everyone in the Fine Arts building of Dhaka University. I used to share a bond with Hashim Mahmud. I recorded some songs sung by Hashim Mahmud back then, but unfortunately, as my hard disk crashed I lost the recordings so, I wasn’t able to release them. When I started the project ‘Hawa’ I thought a song of his should be a part of my film as I understand his songs and the emotions behind them the most. Because of that, I planned to use the song, but at that time we couldn’t track him as he is now suffering from schizophrenia and his condition has worsened more. But after a long hunt, we tracked him, took permission from his family, and finally, we made the song ‘Shada Shada Kala Kala’.

It’s been more than 20 years since I listened to the song, and I loved it. I never thought people would like the song this much.

How is the movie’s publicity coming along?

Basically, we are launching our content one after another right now. We released one of our songs ‘Shada Shada Kala Kala’, and we launched another song, “E Hawa” by Meghdol, which is also a promotional song for the film. We are planning to launch a campaign which will focus on universities and students.

We are trying our best to make every step count. I think the film has already reached the audience by now. Our team tried our best to give a hundred per cent effort. People are starting to know about the film now, but the film took place for us in 2016 when we were developing the idea. We started to write the script in 2017 and shooting took place in 2019. Thus, it is very close to us. I can’t tell how good the film will be, but I will leave the judgment to the audience. They will tell you how the film is.

How many movie theatres will screen ‘Hawa’?

If we want, we can book as many halls as we want, but we don’t want to book too many halls for ‘Hawa’. This is because we want the audience for the film to grow gradually, as this will be a matter of joy to us. Another fact is that there is no professional producer here as Square doesn’t usually produce films professionally due to being a corporate house. Thus, we have to take every step carefully. The fact is, I don’t know anything about film producing, distribution, or hall politics. These are very new things for me. I am facing a lot of challenges here. But initially, I think ‘Hawa’ will be released in more than 20 cinema halls.