Filmmaker Amitabh Reza Chowdhury, who made a blast with ‘Aynabaji’, is coming up with his second film ‘Rickshaw Girl’ after five years. Meanwhile, the film was shown in July 2021 at the 42nd edition of the Durban International Film Festival, South Africa’s oldest film festival. It was the international premiere of ‘Rickshaw Girl.’ Since then, the movie has been earning some fame in different film festivals. Most recently it has won the Best Feature Film Award at the Prescott International Film Festival.
The film is based on Indian descent American writer Mitali Perkins’ book ‘Rickshaw Girl.” Today we will discuss some unknown facts of the movie Rickshaw Girl.
What’s the film about?
A glimpse of the story is shown in the trailer which was released in July 2021. In the 2.15 minutes, the trailer portrayed the use of fantastic scenes and colors along with a fascinating storyline. The trailer started with the scene of Siam-Puja’s Poramon 2 movie song and left the audience puzzled for a while. In the trailer, it is understood that the movie is about the art-minded teenage girl Naima who is the ‘Rickshaw Girl.’
In this movie, the central character Naima used to love doing paintings. But everything changes when the only earner of the family, her father suddenly falls ill. Since the painting cannot earn any money for the family, Naima was forced to take a rickshaw out on the road to earn money for the family. That’s how the movie’s storyline will run, which will also show her complications as a rickshaw puller.
The story of the movie ‘Rickshaw Girl’ has been made with various dreams in the life of teenager Naima. Besides, the producers and the director aim to take the Bangladeshi rickshaw painting to an international level.
Sharbari Z. Ahmed and Naseef Faruque Amin, have written the screenplay of the movie based on the book ‘Rickshaw Girl’ written by Mitali Perkins, an American writer of Indian descent. The novel Rickshaw Girl, written by novelist Mitali Perkins, is widely acclaimed in North America.
As a result, audiences in that region have been waiting for a long time to see the film based on the novel. That is why the film is made in a Bangladeshi context but its dialogue is mostly in English. However, the Bangladeshi version of the movie will be different when the teaser or trailer is released for the country’s theaters.
Major Cast and Producers
Novera Rahman has played the role of the main character Naima in this film. She also has a bright presence throughout the trailer. Momena Chowdhury is seen as her mother and Naresh Bhuiyan as her father. Champa and Allen Shuvbhro are also seen in the trailer.
The lead role Novera might not be a popular face as she is not regular in acting, but she is not an amateur either. Novera is known for her acting as a child artist in ‘Pakhi Shob Kore Rob’ and ‘Ekannoborti’. Further, she along with her mother appeared in two music videos of Nakul Kumar Biswas. Later, she also acted in the movie Khudiram. Previously Novera acted as a garment worker, Daliya in Rubaiyat Hossain’s movie Made in Bangladesh.
The film is produced by Eric J. Adams, executive producers are Faridur Reza Sagar and Ziauddin Adil. Moreover, this is the first full-length film as the joint production of America and Bangladesh.
Although the movie is yet to be released in the country, ‘Rickshaw Girl’ is touring international film festivals. Producer Amitabh Reza Chowdhury was in the United States with ‘Rickshaw Girl’ in early October. The film was screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival and started the movie’s tour of North America.
What is Prescott International Film Festival?
The Prescott Film Festival is an effort of volunteers and independent filmmakers who work on promoting the tourism industry in the Quad and Prescott City areas through independent films. Since 2010, the festival has been bringing together independent films from around the world. Yavapai College, located in Prescott, Arizona, is turning into a gathering of new directors every year. This time the festival was held from 14 to 17 October in the community room, performing arts building, and sculpture garden of Yavapai College.
Amitabh Raza’s film ‘Rickshaw Girl’ has won the award at the Prescott Film Festival in America. The film won the Medal of Best Narrative Feature Film at the Jury Awards.
Rickshaw Girl’s international tours and awards
So far the movies have been screened at six foreign film festivals and won awards in some of the festivals.
– Official selection in Durban Film Festival 2021
– Audience Favorite/Family in Mill Valley Film Festival 2021
– Official Selection at Vancouver Asian Film Festival 2021
– Best Feature Film in Prescott International Film Festival 2021
– Winner ‘Top Film’ in Schlingel International Film Festival 2021
– Outstanding Achievement Award in Tagore International Film Festival 2021
– Best Narrative Feature in Tagore International Film Festival 2021
About Director Amitabh Reza Chowdhury
Amitabh Reza Chowdhury is a prominent Bangladeshi advertisement maker and film director. He has produced about a thousand television commercials or TVCs. Further, Amitabh Reza also made a lot of TV dramas. However, he made his film directorial debut with Aynabaji movie. He started his career as a director by producing the play ‘Hawa Ghar’ in 1999.
Since then he has made numerous television commercials and dramas. In 2016, his first film ‘Aynabaji’ was released and got huge appraisal in Bangladesh. Aynabaji was screened at the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival. Also, the movie won the best film award at the United States’ 11th Seattle South Asian Film Festival.
Apart from the Rickshaw Girl, his upcoming movie includes Punorujjibon. In the meantime, his next film Munshigiri has already been released digitally on the Chorki platform in September 2021.
Amitabh Reza’s feature movie Rickshaw Girl was awarded as the best feature film at Prescott for portraying a touching story of Naima’s life, which also represents the life story of the poor families in Bangladesh.
The sales agent of the movie Rickshaw Girl is German. They are looking into the matter of the international release. And the date for local release will be declared after finishing the international release.
Source: United News of Bangladesh