Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer at ZEE5 Global, the largest OTT platform for South Asian content, announced the launch of their first Bangladeshi Original, a dark-comedy thriller, “Mainkar Chipay”, on Tuesday.
She also announced the development and production of three new Bangladeshi content projects over the next few months, with more in the pipeline. The announcements were made at a star-studded event attended by the likes of Ziaul Faruq Apurba, Nusraat Faria, Afran Nisho, Bidya Sinha Mim, Arifin Shuvoo, and many more.
Mr. Asaduzzaman Noor, the former Minister of Cultural Affairs of Bangladesh, Vice Chairman of Asiatic 360, and a veteran actor himself, was also in attendance. Additional upcoming ventures were unveiled as well; all these shows will be available to ZEE5 Global subscribers in over 190 countries.
“Investing in local content that resonates with global audiences and building out strong local partnerships is high on our agenda this year,” said Amit Goenka, President – Digital Businesses & Platforms, ZEE Entertainment. “Bangladesh is a high priority market for us and we’re very glad to be rolling out our first set of Originals in this market today as a first step towards our vision for strong collaborations with this market.”
Mainkar Chipay, directed by internationally acclaimed young filmmaker Abrar Athar, is a situational thriller comedy that will see Afran Nisho, Sariful Razz, and Shamol Mawla working together for the first time. The minimalist thriller follows a cop, a drug dealer, and a drug addict caught in a situation inside a car. Production was done with strict adherence to all the lockdown guidelines. This will be the first project for Abrar since Koli 2.0. Set for on 9th November, this will mark the beginning of ZEE5’s Bangladeshi Original Content chapter.
“We’re super excited to shoot the first Bangladeshi original on Zee 5. The film was shot in record time and we wrote the script in a way that didn’t require a large crew or a lot of equipment, ” said Director Abrar Athar. “It’s a crime thriller comedy and we really hope people have as much fun watching it as we did making it.”
Among other projects, notable Bangladeshi screenwriter and filmmaker Shihab Shaheen is set to commence shooting on 28th October for his new film and second ZEE5 Original, “Jodi, Kintu Tobuo…”, a romantic comedy starring Ziaul Faruq Apurba and Nusraat Faria, while another national award-winning young director Anam Biswas will be working on “What the Fry?” starring Bidya Sinha Mim.
Also part of the line-up will be Tanim Noor and Krishnendu Chattopadhyay’s (with Parthe Sarkar as an associate director) “Contract”, a web series starring Arifin Shuvoo, Chanchal Chowdhury, Zakia Bari Mamo, and Iresh Zaker. The Originals are being produced in partnership with local content agency Good Company Limited – An Asiatic 360 Content Initiative.
“Bangladesh has an immense pool of talented directors and artists and rich cultural stories,” said Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 Global. “In line with our vision of creating rich local narratives with the local talent, and giving them a global audience, we’re thrilled to be announcing a slate of multiple projects, and the launch of our very first Bangladeshi Original – Mainkar Chipay. We have brought together the best of talent from Bangladesh to create these unique narratives which are sure to resonate with viewers, not just in this region but across the globe.”
Sarder Saniat Hossain, CEO, Good Company expressed his delight to have been a part of a journey together with ZEE5 to take Bangladeshi content to global audiences.
