Amid COVID19 pandemic, here’s a good news for the people of Assam.
‘Xubala’, an Assamese movie by noted filmmaker Munna Ahmed, has been selected to be screened in Lift-off Sessions Film Festival 2020, UK and Lift-off Sessions Film Festival 2020, Hollywood.
The film will be screened in the latter part of this month at Pinewood Studios, UK, and Raleigh Studios, Hollywood.
The movie is based on noted writer Homen Borgohain’s novel ‘Xubala’.
Talking to Northeast Now on Wednesday, director Ahmed informed that they started shooting for the film in August 2018 and completed it by January-February this year.
The director said they are expecting to release the movie by the year-end.
Ahmed said, “Due to COVID19 pandemic, the cinema halls are remaining closed. We expect to release the film by this year-end.”
Well-known actor Urmila Mahanta has played the lead role, Xubala in the movie while the role of child Xubala has been played by eight-year-old Apsara Das.
Apsara, a student of Class V, is studying in Gurukul School Tezpur.
“Both Urmila and Apsara have given their best in the movie,” director Ahmed said.
The other cast members are Atul Pachani, Himangshu Prasad Das, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Padmaraag Goswami, Pratibha Choudhuri, Pranami Bora, Kushal Gogoi, Nila Saikia, Violina Baruah, Poja and Paresh Saikia.
The film was mainly shot in Guwahati, Mirja and Palashbari in Kamrup.
Regarding his future venture, Ahmed said he will come up with a commercial movie next.
“I have already planned to make a commercial film. But due to the lockdown in view of COVID19 pandemic, the project is getting delayed,” the film director said.
The story is of an innocent village girl, who struggled a lot due to poverty, even lost all hopes to live and became a victim of prostitution to come out of poverty.
“This is a women-oriented story which beautifully reflects the journey of a girl child who has faced a lot of struggles to survive in her life and it shows how the woman becomes a subject of exploitation,” said Ahmed.
The music of the film has been prepared by national award-winning singer Tarali Sarma.
The film has been edited by Debankar Borgohain.
“The movie, produced by Abdul Mannan Faruque, has Aviska Phukan in screenplay and Suman Dowarah in cinematography,” chief assistant director Kushal Kumar Gogoi told Northeast Now.
Gogoi also informed that the movie has Biswa Kalita and Bhaskar Hazarika in make-up, Rani Dutta Borah in costume, Jyotisankar Bhattacharya in art, and Dipak Dutta and Babul in sound recording effects.
