'Shonibar Bikel' finally gets censor board clearance on Saturday afternoon

‘Shonibar Bikel’ (Saturday Afternoon), one of the most talked-about films for the past three years in Dhallywood for not getting clearance by Bangladesh Film Censor Board, finally got its clearance, coincidentally on a Saturday afternoon.

Popular storyteller and director of the film Mostofa Sarwar Farooki confirmed the news of the clearance.

The film, based on the 2016 Holey Artisan attack, now has no obstructions to theatrical release, according to the appeal board consisting of actress and lawmaker Suborna Mustafa, national Press Club general secretary and former censor board vice chairman Shyamal Dutta, actress Sucharita and former additional Secretary Nurul Karim.

The members of the appeal board saw the film today (Saturday). With this clearance, the film has no more restrictions to have its theatrical release countrywide, Shyamal Dutta told media.

Previously, information and broadcasting minister Hasan Mahmud had said that Bangladesh Film Censor Board froze the film as the then-board members gave their opinion on several issues including the country’s internal security and global reputation, crime and lawlessness, religious sentiments being hurt and the use of obscene dialogues

While, ‘Shonibar Bikel’ fought for its clearance, Bollywood proceeded with the production of a film based on the same incident and beat ‘Shonibar Bikel’ to it, as Indian filmmaker Hansal Mehta announced that his film ‘Faraaz’, will hit the theatres on 3 February.

Farooki and many other prominent artistes then took to media with the demand of ‘Shonibar Bikel’ having clearance before ‘Faraaz’ being released.

“We are very happy and thankful to the honourable members of the Censor Board. We are now awaiting the board's letter and as soon as we receive the letter, we will start working for the release. Our target is to release the film before ‘Faraaz’,” Jaaz Multimedia, the distributor of the film posted on its official Facebook page.

With an ensemble cast of Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Zahid Hasan, Mamunur Rashid, Iresh Zaker, Nader Chowdhury, Gousul Alam Shaon, Indian-Bengali film actor-director Parambrata Chatterjee and Palestinian actor Eyad Hourani - Farooki's 'Shonibar Bikel’ received multiple awards at different festivals across the world.