A popular children’s book about a Bangladeshi girl who decides to disguise herself as a boy in order to work and help pull her family out of poverty is being adapted for the big screen.
Mitali Perkins’ book “Rickshaw Girl”, first published in 2007, follows the story of Naima, the daughter of a rickshaw puller who lives with her family outside of a large city. Naima is acknowledged for her skills as an “alpana” artist – painters who use their hands and a paste of rice and flour to create artwork called “alpanas” in Bangladesh and West Bengal. She longs to use her skills to help her impoverished family.
The story continues with Naima disguising as a boy to pull her father’s rickshaw, and tells the tale of the adventures she faces in her task.
Perkins was born in Calcutta, India, but moved to London when she was 7 years old. Since then, she has lived in several countries, including Bangladesh, Ghana, Mexico, Cameroon and the United States. She completed her higher studies from Stanford and UC Berkeley.
“I lived in Bangladesh for three years and I speak Bangla,” said Perkins in an interview. She said that she had worked with several non-government organizations and had become familiar with the rural scene of this country.
“Talking to the women in here, I came to know how empowering it was for them to be contributing to the family,” she continued. “I got the idea in my head then.”
Perkins became particularly struck by the beautifully decorated rickshaws she would see as she traveled throughout the country. She would sometimes see alpanas drawn upon the rickshaws, and thought each of them told a different story.
She then began thinking of what it would be like to grow up as a young girl in one of the families who pulled these rickshaws.
Perkins said the decision to base the book in Bangladesh came from her family history. “My parents were born in what was then East Bengal before the partition of 1947, " she said. “Many families moved to West Bengal then, but it never felt like home.” Later, she along with her family moved to London.
Since its publication, “Rickshaw Girl” has been published in several Asian languages and the film rights were optioned several years ago. Perkins said she was glad it came to be adapted, because putting a book on the silver screen gave it a life of its own.
Considering the background and Perkins’ own personal history, she was glad that “Rickshaw Girl” would get directed by a Bangladeshi filmmaker, Amitabh Reza, and the screenplay would be written by Sharbari Z Ahmed, a Bangladeshi-American writer.
Sharbari Z Ahmed, who also wrote the script for popular TV show Quantico, said that she was happy to tell the story of a character who came from a background similar to her own. But she was mainly excited to show the world how diverse the Muslim community is.
“Naima is Muslim, and more importantly, she is a Bangladeshi Muslim. Hollywood tends to have images of Muslims that come out of the Middle East,” Sharbari said. “I wrote for ‘Quantico’ and there were women in hijab, but what’s largely ignored is that Islam manifests itself in different ways in different cultures.”
Realizing how the general populace is embracing films about independent women more and more, Sharbari wanted to work on this particular script. She believes the movie would show the struggles of a teenage girl that tries to work on her own regardless of an often hostile society.
“Naima is not a privileged teenager.” she said. “She is almost from the slums, her family barely has money to put food on the table. We wanted to show what it was like being on the edge of womanhood in a country that is quite conservative.”
Thursday, June 04, 2026
