After "Munshigiri", Amitabh Reza Chowdhury recently received a government grant for his upcoming film "1969". The period drama, which is based on the Agartala Conspiracy, received the highest grant of BDT 75 lakh among the 19 other projects that have also received grants from the government this year. We caught up with the "Aynabaji" famed director to know more about "1969" and his other upcoming projects.

In a recent interview, you said that the grant you received will not be enough for this production.

Having evaluated the budget that I need, the grant will only be able to partially fund the production. My estimation says that we need two or three times the amount we have received from the grant for "1969".

As this is a period drama, we cannot compromise on the cinematic depiction of historic events, as such films also function as archives.

I look forward to managing more funds for this production.

You also mentioned that the government is now funding commercial projects. Are you taking this positively?

There has been a change in their strategy, and both positive and negative outcomes are expected from this decision.

Previously, the government used to primarily focus on unorthodoxprojects. Nevertheless, the grants are also being given to mainstream cinema in recent years.

There are always two sides to a coin. I feel that mainstream productions have the scope to generate revenue. However, the productions may fail to bring about the expected profits.

I am not criticising this step, as they have decided to select around 20 productions instead of 10, for government grants. Thus, it is not the case that mainstream cinema is sidelining unorthodox projects in this regard.

Why have you chosen to narrate the Agartala Conspiracy case cinematically?

The incident of the Agartala Conspiracy case has been wrongly depicted in our historic archive. I wanted to put forward a more well-researched version of the incident for our audience. I also look to present the political context behind this conspiracy, to help the audience better relate to the course of events around this conspiracy.

We have finished the scripting of the film, and we plan to start pre-production preparation from October of this year. Additionally, we are planning to start shooting from February or March of next year.

What else are you busy with these days?

I am almost done with the pre-production of my Hoichoi original web series, "Bodh". We will start shooting from next week. After this project is finished, I wish to give my full attention to "1969".