‘It’s dissatisfaction that drives the artiste forward’

He had a penchant for films since childhood. He had already gotten familiar with international cinema during his school and college days.

After getting admission to BUET, he became even more invested in films and joined the film club there. Whenever he had free time, he used to visit British Council or Alliance Francaise to watch movies.

Although he started working in theatre and television, cinemanever left Tauquir Ahmed’s mind. Alongside watching movies, he study about cinema too.

In the meantime, he started giving direction on stage and television, made stage dramas, television dramas and telefilms like ‘Protisoron’, ‘Naiyori’, ‘Uttor Purush’, ‘Londoni Konya’ and ‘Tomar Boshonto Din’.

In Tauquir’s words, these were his pre film-making ‘training’. He did a diploma course from New York Film Academy in 2002. And, his first film ‘Joyjatra’ released in 2004.

He had to struggle finding producers for his films at the beginning.

“It wasn’t easy finding producers. Back then, I was working as an architect and running a business on the side- overall I produced the films on my own.”

“Another major hurdle was distribution. In fact finding halls was tough too. Even exhibitors did not consider it commercially profitable to display films made outside of FDC,” he added.

From ‘Joyjatra’, ‘Rupkothar Golpo’, ‘Oggatonama’, ‘Halda’ to ‘Fagun Haoway’- an innate feature of all Tauquir Ahmed films is their link to the country’s roots.

Tauquir said, whenever a story haunts him, and it seems necessary to tell the story, he makes it. This is how ‘Oggatonama’ or ‘Halda’ was created.

And, when it seemed necessary to work on the language movement, he made ‘Fagun Haway’.

In the film ‘Sphulingo’ he presented the liberation war in a different way before the audience of this generation, telling the story through the lens of a music band.

The majority of Tauquir’s films were not commercially successful. ‘Oggatonama’ however, created quite a debate in the social media after being released on Youtube.

At present, films like ‘Hawa’ are gaining commercial success, does Tauquir reckon other of his films including ‘Oggatonama’ would have been more successful if they were released at this time?

Tauquir said, “I lack the quality it requires to promote or market a movie in an effective way. And I don’t think a movie being hit or flop has anything to do with it being a good or bad movie.”

Tauquir Ahmed considers himself an independent or indie filmmaker who wishes to tell his story going beyond the conventional commercial film genre. He has made only seven films in 18 years.

Could the number have been higher? Of course it could. The director himself would have been happier to make one film each year.

Father sadly, Tauquir explained the reason for that not happening, “From talent to preparation to investments, there are a lot of things involved with filmmaking.”

“I have been discouraged from filmmaking in various ways, couldn’t even manage to get producers for many films.”

‘Fagun Haway’ was one of the projects that he failed to get investments for. He wanted to make the film back in 2008. Finally, he managed to finish it after nine years.

Inability to do the film in time caused a nine-year gap in his directorial career- after ‘Daruchini Dwip’ in 2007, he made 'Oggatonama' in 2016.

Tauquir said, “I had become frustrated. I felt hurt. I became busy with other things, moving away from directing films. If I had worked in the meantime, there could have been four more movies.”

He said he will make another film next year.

Looking back, director Tauquir keeps dissecting his works all the time. He believes, there are many mistakes in the works he has done. This pains him sometimes.

Then again he believes it comes along with experience. “An artiste hardly has any scope to be satisfied, it is the dissatisfaction that drives the artiste,” says Tauquir.  

When asked howhe ranks his seven films, he said, “In ‘Joyjatra’ we managed to do a lot of things accurately, ‘Oggatonama’ had gotten an extensive response from the audience. And, to me the making of ‘Halda’ seemed a lot more refined.”

Many producers, filmmakers are becoming hopeful about Bangladeshi films for films like ‘Hawa’ and ‘Poran’ doing great in the box-office. Tauquir Ahmed however thinks, it’s difficult to explain the issue with just one or two disconnected examples. Although he sees the number of multiplex going up as a positive sign, he believes multiplex tickets are too expensive.  

Besides, the filmmaker also raised questions about how much interest the multiplexes have in running indie films. On this point, he gave examples of two recently released films, ‘Kura Pokkhir Shunne Ora’ and ‘Deshantor’.

Tauquir Ahmed believes the movie market is still a tough place for those who want to work in films of other genres outside of commercial films.