Busan: Director Chowdhury Sets ‘Rickshaw Girl’ for March Shoot
Bangladeshi filmmaker Amitabh Reza Chowdhury (“Aynabaji”) will go into production on Bengali-language film “Rickshaw Girl” in March.
Chowdhury is part of the Bangladeshi contingent attending the Busan Platform program.
The film is based on Mitali Perkins’ bestselling 2007 young adult novel that was chosen by the New York Public Library as one of the 100 great children’s books of the last 100 years.
“Rickshaw Girl” is a female empowerment story about Naima, a young Bangladeshi girl who tries to help her struggling family by disguising herself as a boy and operating her ailing father’s prized rickshaw for much-needed extra money. When she crashes the rickshaw, Naima uses her ingenuity and determination to find a way to repair the damage.
“She is also a painter, so she tries rickshaw painting,” says Chowdhury. “I will explore rickshaw painting in Dhaka and the idea of rickshaw painting in general. I will also include some animation, so it will be fun.”
The book is adapted into a screenplay by Sharbari Z. Ahmed, who is one of the writers on the “Quantico” team.
Chowdhury will produce via his Half Stop Down outfit alongside Eric J. Adams of U.S. company Sleeperwave Films (“To Save a Child”). Adams wrote and co-produced “Supremacy,” which won best diaspora feature at the African Movie Academy Awards and the cast of which includes Mahershala Ali and Danny Glover.
Adams also co-wrote and co-produced “Archie’s Final Project,” starring Mariel Hemingway and David Carradine, which won several international awards including a Crystal Bear at Berlin and a jury prize at Raindance.
Germany’s Atlas Intl. is handling global sales.
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