Bidya Sinha Saha Mim

From winning the Lux Channel i Superstar crown back in 2007 to the blockbuster commercial success of ‘Poran,’ Bangladeshi model and actress Bidya Sinha Saha Mim needs no introduction. After her big screen debut in 2008 appearing in Humayun Ahmed’s ‘Amar Ache Jol,’ Mim never looked back. In a recent interview with The Business post’s Siam Raihan, Mim talked about her career, life and more

Tell us a bit about your career.

It all began after I participated in and won the beauty pageant called ‘Lux Channel i Superstar’ in 2007. It was a huge platform for me back then which led me to star in the lead role of Humayun Ahmed’s feature film ‘Amar Ache Jol’ in 2008. That role kick-started my career as an actor and I starred in several hit TV dramas in the same year. The very next year I played the role of Priyanka alongside Shakib Khan in my second film ‘Amar Praner Priya’ directed by Zakir Hossain Raju. It also became a big hit and I kept regularly working in TV dramas and films till today. I also kept working with major brands too.

I took a break from acting from 2012 to 2013 and returned to the silver screen with Khalid Mahmud Mithu’s ‘Jonakir Alo.’ My role in that film got me my first National Film Award. After that, I had the opportunity to work on several Indian films and acted opposite stars like Soham Chakraborty, Prasenjit Chatterjee and Jeet. After the pandemic subsided, I started ‘Poran’ which became a blockbuster hit.

What is your experience after becoming Unicef’s National Ambassador in Bangladesh?

Being an ambassador of a UN agency is a great honour. I was appointed as Unicef’s National Ambassador in Bangladesh in May 2022. It was such a remarkable moment in my life when they approached me with such a prestigious offer. I always wanted to work for the children of Bangladesh. So, getting such an opportunity to work for the children and women of my country feels great. I usually participated in their social media awareness and information campaigns but last week was the first time when I got the opportunity to work with Unicef in the field. We visited remote regions around Sylhet which were completely submerged during the flood.

During my two-day tour, I got first-hand experience of how Unicef contributes to the restoration of flood-damaged latrines, water points, schools and health facilities.

As a female icon in the country, how do you feel about Bangladesh girls’ winning the SAFF title?

It felt absolutely amazing. While some people of Bangladesh are actively trying to undermine our women but the women of Bangladesh are the ones who are coming up successful in every single sector. Whenever a woman becomes successful, it turns into success for every woman in this country. We women try our level best in whichever sector we work in. As I am an actor and I represent the art sector of my country, I always try to give my best performance onscreen so that I can represent my country to the world in the best way possible. And I constantly keep trying to improve myself in that regard. Our women’s football team is doing the same with sports. They have been fighting off all the prejudices and hurdles in front of them and now they came out as South Asian champions.

Also, to be very honest, I never liked this distinction of ‘us’ against ‘them’. Why do we need to divide our victories? We should all be treated the same in every workplace, right? In my opinion, true equality will only come if we treat each other as humans.

How are you enjoying the audience response for ‘Poran’?

The first thing that I have to say is that our entire team never thought that ‘Poran’ will turn into this nationwide sensation. It is unimaginable that our three-month-old film is still competing strongly with recently released films. We are still witnessing housefull shows during the weekends. And not just against local films. ‘Poran’ opened alongside Marvel’s “Thor: Love and Thunder.” People started to say our box-office run will now slow down. Whereas, the complete opposite thing happened. To be very specific, during the second week, Mirpur’s Sony Square had to pull out ‘Thor’ from one of the theatres in their multiplex to accommodate more shows of ‘Poran.’ This amount of love from the audience is hard to describe in words. But our heartfelt gratitude goes to the viewers who turned this film into a blockbuster.

We also recently released the film in North America and previously in Europe and Australia. And all shows were sold out right after the pre-books began.

Another very interesting memory is when I visited Sylhet for the Unicef campaign. I stayed at the Grand Sylhet Hotel and Resort which opened the first multiplex in that area. The owners of the five-star hotel came to thank me. They surprised me by saying that they originally opened this multiplex inside their resort for the entertainment guests. They never thought that this will be a profitable venture. They mentioned that they opened the theatre with ‘Poran’ and our film brought them more than Tk 60 lakh in profit. Most recent films in our industry can’t even acquire the film’s budget. A lot of theatre owners have contacted us and said that they were deep in debt due to the Covid-19 lockdowns and ‘Poran’ came in as their saviour. The most important thing about this film is that it helped our theatre owners and inspired new investors to create more theatres across the country. This will ultimately help our film industry in the long run. I’m not sure whether anything else in my career will beat the success of ‘Poran.’

How was your experience shooting ‘Damal’?

One of the main reasons why I signed this film was I always wanted to work in a Liberation War-based film. Also, as this film revolves around the war and the Swadhin Bangla football team, the audience will be eager to watch it. Moreover, my character in the screenplay was a very challenging one and I wanted to go through that. This film has a lot of major characters and each of them had an important role to play. The script is also very well written. The entire cast had been working very hard and we are very happy with the output. I am very happy and hopeful about ‘Damal.’ We all want ‘Damal’ to be as successful as ‘Poran,’ hopefully even more. Let’s see how everything pans out.

Why are you remain absent on OTT platforms and how do you see the recent OTT wave? 

Yes, Bangladeshi OTT content are gradually catching up in the international market. People are praising and enjoying them. People are already talking about the censorship in Bangladesh and worried about the future of OTT content in the country if they get censored too. If we even start to censor OTT content then the filmmakers can’t even portray the story they actually want to say on screen. Whereas we should lift all sorts of restrictions on any sort of content. People can write anything they want if they are publishing books then why should the visual medium be restricted?

And the people who are in support of censorship these days don’t talk about the dark ages of our film industry when most films were obscene and a lot of actors stopped working in films because of that era. There was a censor board back then. Why didn’t they censor those films back then? Most of the films that are currently blocked by the censor are not even obscene. The reasons are silly if we compare it to Hollywood or even Bollywood films. Then what is the basis of this?

Al​​so, I haven’t worked much in the OTT scene after ‘Beauty and the Bullet’ and Zee5’s ‘What The Fry.’ I have been approached by a lot of filmmakers but I did not like the script so I didn’t sign for those. If I like any OTT web series scripts I will definitely work more in the future.

Any updates on ‘Antarjaal’?

Dipankar Dipon’s cyber-thriller ‘Antarjal’ is a very exciting project. All parts of my shoot are already complete. The team is still shooting some outdoor parts of my co-star Siam Ahmed. I cannot tell the exact release date but if the post-production is complete according to schedule then the audience can watch the film next year in theatres.

What’s difference between the single Mim and the married one?

We are really enjoying our family life. My husband Soni Poddar and I got married this year and we are really happy with each other. We are both focused on our careers as well as our family. We have learned to spend time with each other despite our busy schedules. Things are great overall.

What are your best and worst points in your career?

Definitely, the best point in my career was winning the ‘Lux Channel i Superstar title back in 2007. That was the turning point in my life and changed my career completely. But the commercial success of ‘Poran’ is also the best thing that happened to me.

And I can’t point out a specific worst moment but yes I did face bad days. Sometimes I was very tired of working or something bad happened on set or even I signed a project then later heard that I was replaced with someone else. Working on some projects put me through severe depression and so on. But all these are part of the journey. There are a hundred bad things I can say but within all this, I also hear praise about some work I did then I instantly become happy. So all these ups and downs will always be there. That’s how life goes by.