Raihan Rafi speaks out on controversy over ‘Damal’ trailer

‘Poran’ famed director Raihan Rafi’s ‘Damal’ faced backlash on social media after he was accused by a large group of netizens that he distorted historical facts about Bangladesh’s Liberation War. The controversy was triggered by a Facebook post published by Paris-based Bangladeshi doctor and controversial political content creator Pinaki Bhattacharya on Thursday.

Without mentioning the recently hyped ‘Damal’ trailer, Bhattacharya also claimed that contemporary films and dramas only show that Bangladeshi freedom fighters only chanted ‘Joy Bangla’ during the Liberation War and “Naraye Takbir, Allahu Akbar” is only chanted by Razakars or war criminals. He further claimed that this was the misrepresentation of historical facts about the Bangladeshi freedom fighters.

The screenshot of Bhattacharya’s controversial Facebook post triggered a huge online debate in Bangladeshi film enthusiast Facebook groups and led to a group of netizens accusing Raihan Rafi of hurting religious sentiment and distorting historical facts on Bangladesh’s Liberation War as the ‘Damal’ trailer showed Razakars chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great).

While another group of netizens supported the representation in the trailer and started sharing historical documents that the Razakars often used this slogan during the Liberation War, and ‘Joy Bangla’ was the common slogan used by the freedom fighters.

Raihan Rafi told The Business Post on Friday that his upcoming film ‘Damal’ has no misrepresentation of historical facts nor did it depict something that will hurt religious sentiments. A lot of research went into its screenplay before going to production.

He also requested the audience to wait for the film’s release and watch it for themselves before passing any judgment.

Later on, he took to social media on Friday afternoon and wrote on his verified Facebook profile, “I want to assure you of one thing, you guys have believed in me for so long. Now, have that faith in me again. I won’t do anything in the movie ‘Damal’ that distorts religion or history. We will only depict the true history of the struggle for Bangladesh’s freedom in the film ‘Damal’.”

Released on Tuesday (August 23) night from the verified YouTube channel of Channel-i, the official trailer of ‘Damal’ went viral on social media and made it into the Bangladeshi trending list on YouTube.

Produced by Impress Telefilm Ltd the film stars Siam Ahmed, Sariful Raaz, Bidya Sinha Mim, Sumit Sen Gupta, Shahnaz Sumi, and others.