Farooki's next to go on floors this December

Mostofa Sarwar Farooki will commence production on Bengali- and English- language film “Saturday Afternoon” in December. International film magazine Variety broke the news on Monday.

Nusrat Imroze Tisha is confirmed as one of the leads of “Saturday Afternoon” while Palestinian actor Eyad Hourani is set to play the other central role for the Bangladesh-India-Germany joint production. Casting for the other characters are ongoing, Farooki told The Daily Star.

Asked why a Palestinian actor is being cast in the film, Farooki explained: “The film will have characters of a number of nationalities, and Eyad will be playing one of them.” The film, that carries a $500,000 budget, is a thriller where the lives of several people collide, according to the internationally-acclaimed helmer.

The film is being jointly produced by Abdul Aziz for Jaaz Multimedia and Farooki for Chabial (Bangladesh) and Shyam Sundar Dey for Greentouch Entertainment (India), while Anna Katchko of Tandem Production (Germany) will serve as co-producer.

“Saturday Afternoon” will also set off Farooki's “Identity” trilogy. The second film in line will be “No Land's Man”, and the third will be on the Myanmarese Rohingya ethnic group. “The next two films will come in quick succession, if everything goes right,” Farooki told The Daily Star. “No Land's Man” already has funding from India's Film Bazaar and the Asia Pacific Screen Academy.

Meanwhile, the director is currently busy promoting his upcoming Bangladesh-India joint venture film “Doob” (“No Bed of Roses”) that stars talismanic Indian actor Irrfan Khan in the lead. Farooki has been doing the press circuit in Kolkata promoting the film over the last week, and also has campaign plans lined up back home, where he is scheduled to return today.