Director Nuhash Humayun is on a roll. His first feature film “Moving Bangladesh” received a whopping $89,800 from the Taipei Film Fund and $20,000 from Sloan Fast Track Grant. His horror short “Moshari” won SXSW 2022’s Midnight Shorts Jury Award. Now his folk horror web series “Pett kata Shaw” is streaming on Chorki where enthusiasts of this genre flocked to gobble down all four episodes- “Ei Building a Meye Nishedh,” “Mishti Kichhu,” “Loke Bole,” and “Nishir Daak.” In this interview with Dhaka Tribune’s Showtime Editor Sadia Khalid Reeti, the young director talks about all three projects, plus his plans, or lack thereof, to adapt novels.
Moshari
Nuhash has always experimented with horror comedy since his “Dhaka Pocalypse” (short film) or “Khoka” (music video) days. This is the first time he plunged into pure horror, according to the director. This independently produced short film is getting appreciable response from festivals, even though it isn’t the “unusual strategy” to play this particular field.
“People usually go for arthouse films,” he said. “But I decided to delve further into horror with ‘Moshari’.”
About releasing the short in Bangladesh, the director said: “We’ll see after the festival run. We still have a couple of exciting festivals coming up including some Oscar qualifying ones.”
Moving Bangladesh
“We just finished the Sundance Intensive (Feature Screenwriting Lab), something I was really excited about,” said Nuhash about his first feature film in development. “It was the first in a feature film lab from Bangladesh.”
Based on “some great feedback” from this highly competitive platform, he will develop a final draft of the script. Even though he is the sole writer here, a large project with multiple stakeholders can become a complicated writing assignment.
“Sometimes when you have a lot of partners, you have a rush to finish,” said Nuhash, following it up with praise for his Bangladeshi, Taiwanese and French co-producers.
Although the film is based on the founder of Pathao, it is “inspired by true events and is not a biopic,” clarified the director.
“It’s about the start of the startup through a ‘Nuhash lens’,” he said. “Pathao isn’t financially backing us in any way, which could be problematic in terms of storytelling. We’re trying to make sure it’s not highlighting an institution or a company.”
He exemplified the Michael Jordan biopic produced by the basketball legend himself, as a precautionary tale.
“Moving Bangladesh” will also not touch on the murder of co-founder Fahim Saleh, which is an unfortunate incident beyond the scope of the film, Nuhash said.
Pett Kata ShawPett Kata Shaw
When Chorki came to Nuhash for ideas for a web series, he pitched an anthology about Bengali ghosts. The idea instantly clicked, not only with the producers, but with everyone he casually mentioned it to.
“If I talked about it at any party, people would passionately give me ideas,” he said. “Like how the reflection of a jinn may look like… There’s so much love for these ghost stories.”
Since these ghosts are not exactly in any literature, Nuhash depended on folklore that was passed down generations in the form of bedtime stories.
“In a ‘survival of the fittest’ way, these stories survived out of the thousands of stories our grandmothers told us,” he said getting philosophical. “Something about these stories are very primal and powerful- bearing superstition with science and darkness of the mind. It’s not just about ‘bhoot’, it’s about the real horrors of the society.”
The project, which was green-lit in the latter half of last year consumed the team’s entire winter. Cinematographer Tahsin Rahman displayed some commendable camera skills when dawn/dusk scenes of “Nishir Daak” was shot in “bhor dupur.”
The background score by Abhishek Bhattacharjee and Rakat Zami was created even before there was a script, so that they had ample time to experiment with sound. Taking inspiration from “Annihilation,” and “The Haunting of Hill House,” the team used Sarod, Harmonium, Mondira, and the human voice as the main instruments for the four episodes respectively.
“Horror genre films are like a symphony where every department has to play its part like an instrument,” he said when talking about his well-oiled machine of a team. “People often blindly praise directors without attributing the crew.”
When asked whether he made up the folk stories of “Loke Bole” or stumbled on them through research, he said: “I just put up a Facebook status about superstitions. It got thousands of comments. I made origin stories of some of the interesting ones. It was a complex story writing challenge.”
Adaptations
Nuhash has worked with co-writers before for “Hotel Albatross” and other projects. But he hasn’t done adaptations yet, nor does he have plans to do so in the next few years. He is open to collaboration, but treasures his role as a writer, especially since it’s a handy skill for indie filmmakers.
“I take inspiration from all over, but like being a writer/director before going to adaptations,” he said. “There has been a lot of failed experiments in Bangladesh with novels. Just because a novel is good, the film doesn’t always good turn out good,” he added as if to rationalize his decision.
From the overwhelmingly positive response he has gotten for “Pett Kata Shaw” in the form of reviews and fan art, he hopes he can inspire young creators in Bangladesh and nudge producers their way so they too can experiment and shine.