Sabrina is them, Sabrina is us

A rather curious audience, consisting of primarily journalists and media personalities, took their seats in The Daily Star's A S Mahmud Hall. "Who is Sabrina?" was a question – more of a marketing strategy, to Hoichoi and Ashfaque Nipun's next project, "Sabrina".

Present during the press conference were Hoichoi's Bangladesh lead Sakib R Khan, director Ashfaque Nipun, actors Mehazabien Chowdhury, Nazia Haque Orsha and Runa Khan.

As the 60-second teaser pointed out, quite eloquently, that the marketing was not just a gimmick – the cast and crew of the upcoming project was quite determined to portray that Sabrina could be any woman, from any background, facing any level of challenge that the patriarchal society throws in front of them.

Photo: COURTESY OF HOICHOI

The teaser, initially featuring a startled Mehazabien and Orsha responding to the call "Sabrina", cuts out to dozens of women from diverse backgrounds doing the same.

As it turned out, "Sabrina" will look to tell the stories of struggle and triumph, in an 'avant garde' take on a string of familiar issues, according to the director.

"The biggest challenge for me was to be in the shoes of Sabrina, which was extremely tough for me," said Ashfaque Nipun. "I could easily have focused on the sequel to the extremely successful 'Mohanagar', as it is an 'alpha-male' oriented story, and the audience is generally more receptive to it. However, I felt like Sabrina's story just needed to be told."

"It is sad that at this time, we don't get to see much of female centric work", said Mehazabien. "We have so many excellent female artistes, yet we are not able to utilise them, or write good scripts for them. I thank Ashfaque Nipun and Hoichoi for this initiative."

 "Sabrina is someone we all know closely. I have seen Sabrina in my mother, my friends, Sabrina is me," said Orsha. This is the actress' first outing with the streaming platform.

Veteran actress Runa Khan echoed the same sentiment, saying that every woman, at one point, faces the same, tired set of circumstances set by patriarchy.

The web-series, which releases on March, has the entire media world invested in it; not only because of the premise, but the track record that director Ashfaque Nipun boasts while handling sensitive topics.