Home ›› 30 Oct 2022 ›› Show Biz
Movie enthusiasts in Kolkata poured into the city’s cultural hub, Nandan, on the first day of the fourth edition of the Bangladesh Film Festival on Saturday.
The festival began with the screening of the blockbuster movie Hawa and long queues were formed at the venue hours before the show time.
Hawa cast Chanchal Chowdhury shared a video on social media that showed long queues were formed for the 1:00pm show at 10:45am.
There is no entry fee for the shows at the film festival and seating arrangements is carried out on a first-come-first-served basis.
Apart from that, actor Chanchal Chowdhury with popular Indian actor Prosenjit Chatterjee attended the screening of the film. So, looks like the Kolkata audience did not want to miss out on the opportunity to watch the movie with the actor.
A lot of people were also commenting, sharing their photos and posting status on Facebook on the videos while waiting in the queue.
Writer Gautam Mitra wrote on Facebook, “Huge crowd at Nandan after many days. Almost a kilometre-long queue! And it’s for watching the Bangla cinema ‘Hawa’. Jai Bangla.”
Film editor Kalyan Mukhupadhyay wrote, “House full. People are sitting on the stairs.”
“I’ve come to watch ‘Hawa’. I’ve been watching films, screenings, and festivals in Nandan Cinema since 2014 but can’t remember any of them having this massive of an audience waiting in line. I’m feeling happy about Bangladeshi films. On the other hand, I’m equally fastened in our film industry,” posted Rejman Khan a film student at the University of Calcutta.
Businessman Raj Sourav Dey at 2:00pm posted on Facebook, “Now, I’m the first on the queue for the 6:00pm show. Reached here after waiting 1.5 hours. Now it’s confirmed that I’ll be able to watch the evening show. Still, more 1,000-1,200 people are behind me and the queue is getting longer.”
Mentioning Chanchal in the comment section of one such video, another audience member, Budhaditya Biswas wrote “It’s not fair to give this small number of shows for ‘Hawa’. Chanchal please do something about it. There will be a storm in my heart if I fail to watch ‘Hawa.”
The inaugural programme of the festival featured two screenings of acclaimed Bangladeshi filmmaker and musician Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s mystery drama ‘Hawa’—the first at 1:00pm, while the second was at 6:00pm. Both screenings that day took place at Nandan-1.
‘Hawa’ will be screened again on October 31 at 6:00pm in Nandan-2 while the festival will screen the final show of the film on November 2 at 6:00pm as well.
This year, films including the likes of ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’, ‘Hawa’, ‘Paap Punyo’, ‘Laal Moroger Jhuti’, ‘Nonajoler Kabbo’, ‘Poran’, ‘Payer Tolay Mati Nai’, ‘Beauty Circus’, ‘Chandraboti Kotha’, ‘Hridita’, ‘Kalbela’, ‘Chironjib Mujib’, ‘Raat Jaga Phool’, ‘Golui’, ‘Gondi’, and ‘Bishwoshundori’, among others will be featured at the event.
The Bangladesh Film Festival in Kolkata has been held for four consecutive years. Even an epidemic could not hinder this festival. This year’s event is taking place at Nandan West Bengal Film Centre, Kolkata until November 2.
