Aspiring filmmaker Rasel Ahmed considers Satyajit Ray as his idol. Rasel’s debut feature film Nree at present is facing the same difficulties as Ray’s Pother Panchali did sixty years ago. Ray’s wife, Bijoya, was forced to pawn her jewels while Rasel sold his family’s asset to start shooting for the film. Unfortunately the funding was inadequate and the producing company Theme Theatre Wizard Valley- which is owned by Rasel himself could not back the project any longer. Subsequently, a benevolent expat living in Saudi Arabia, Dr Arifur Rahman came to know about the funding crisis through social media and offered some financial support. Recently, when 85 percent of the shooting for the film is done, the production company again runs short of money and stopped the funding.
A teaser trailer of the digitally manufactured film broadcast in youtube and was highly appreciated by film enthusiasts of the country. Rasel was inspired to write story of the film while talking to two embalmers who deal with the disposal of corpses of the Hindu community. These absolutely lower caste Hindus, who formerly considered untouchables, traveled a lot and when they used to come back to their root, they had interesting stories to tell. Their thought on humanity and religion inspired the director to make the film. So, the film contains message about “treating every human with compassion and not to show negligence towards anyone regardless of their class or caste.”
The shooting started in 2012 with amateur casts. The principal cinematographer is Daniel Danny. Editing, sound designing and color grading portion of the film is being readied while the production company is seeking an immediate solution of the financial crisis.
Rasel told the Dhaka Tribune: “I faced numerous hurdles making an international standard film which contains our cultural legacy and I tried adopting and developing our own filmmaking language. We are ready to finish the film as soon as we manage funds.”