Farooki issues letter to censor board for clearance of ‘Saturday Afternoon’

Mostofa Sarwar Farooki's "Saturday Afternoon" has been awaiting theatrical release in Bangladesh for quite a long time now. The censor board of Bangladesh initially denied the film clearance, resulting in the director filing an appeal against the verdict at that time. This event took place three years and seven months ago, and the board is yet to respond to the appeal.

A few days ago, the director took to social media to talk about the matter, where he received support from his fellow filmmakers. As a new wave of discussion began on social media about "Saturday Afternoon", the matter was once again brought to the attention of the censor board. This resulted in the Chairman of the censor board watching the film today.

Farooki shared a post on his verified Facebook account about the matter. The post read: "Today, the Vice Chairman of the Bangladesh Film Censor Board, Mohammad Saifullah, watched 'Saturday Afternoon'. We expect the film to receive a clearance certificate soon, at least for the sake of the development of our film industry."

He also added, "Although audiences from different continents of the world have watched the film, however, only a handful of people from Bangladesh were able to watch the movie. A large group of Bangladeshis watched the film at IFSA, Toronto, and they were very excited about it. By the end of the film, many were asking 'Why has this film not received clearance from the censor board'? I was not able to say anything in response, as I myself did not know the answer to the question. I am as upset with the censor board's treatment as those particular viewers."

"However, we have given a letter demanding that the clearance certificate is issued in seven days—the last day of which will be August 21. After that, we will follow the legal steps regarding this matter. At the same time, we will continue to raise our voices to eradicate all kinds of discrimination against cinema or any form of creative work. Freedom of expression is fundamental and non-negotiable," concluded the post.