“People in Bangladesh do not invest much in streaming platforms and only recently has the OTT boom begun here,” says Bangladeshi director Ashfaque Nipun, speaking with Silverscreen India post the release of his debut web series Mohanagar on Bengali streaming platform Hoichoi.
“So I consider it a huge success that people have subscribed to the platform and binge-watched a web series I directed,” he adds. The show raked in an IMDb rating of 8.8 out of 10 within 24 hours of its release.
Mohanagar, which released on Friday, is about “one fateful night” of an interrogation that takes place at a police station in Bangladesh and includes “a motley crowd consisting of criminals, an eminent industrialist, media, general public,” as per HoiChoi’s synopsis.
The web series stars Mosharraf Karim Zakia Bari Mamo, Shamol Mawla, Mostafizur Noor Imran, and Khairul Basar, among others.
Journey to his debut web series
Photo Source: Hoichoi
After the film Koshtoneer, a family drama and Nipun’s first collaboration with Hoichoi, the streaming platform approached him for a potential web series, says Nipun.
The director, who has previously worked on family dramas and TV movies and shows on socio-political issues such as Eti Ma, Ei Shohore, among others, says he wanted to try his hands on a new genre to get out of his comfort zone with Mohanagar. And so, he chose to make a thriller series.
Speaking about the setting of the show, Nipun says, “In Bangladesh, one of the biggest fears among people across the board, is visiting the police station. In the web series, I have put people belonging from all strata, including the rich, the middle-class, the lower economic class, the urban youth, all together in a police station in the middle of the night.”
The series unfolds based on how each of them reacts to the situation and shows how the system contributes to human rights violation by oppressing the marginalised, while the rich get away every time, Nipun adds.
Photo Source: Hoichoi
The director says he never prepares scripts beforehand while the cast of Mohanagar, mostly theatre actors, were used to bound scripts. He expresses his gratitude to the streaming platform and the entire cast and crew for being patient with him. “Despite the entire cast and crew being new, they blindly trusted me,” he says.
Nipun mentions that the filming happened entirely after sunset and before sunrise. “It was completely against the human body clock. So that was another challenge.”
The web series was mainly shot in a single building in the outskirts of the capital city Dhaka. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the entire cast and crew resided in a guest house nearby and did not go home until the web series was completed. “We became one big family,” the director says.
‘Making web series is very liberating’
Photo Source: Hoichoi
After working on several television serials, television movies and now, a successful web series, what’s next for the filmmaker? Nipun says if he was asked this question before making the web series, he would have answered “films”, instantly. But now, he’s not so sure.
“Making web series is very liberating,” says Nipun. “It is very hard for artists in Bangladesh with all the censorship. There are stringent laws and people raising their voice against the government or the system are arrested under the unlawful terrorist act. So international OTT platforms with fewer censorship issues are like windows for us,” he explains.
“Most of my works have an underlying socio-political message, intentionally or unintentionally,” he adds.
According to Nipun, one of the biggest problems in Bangladesh is human rights violation by the state. “The system violates human rights and no one voices out against it. Through my stories, as an artist, I should bring this to light,” he says.
